Mass Effect: Trailblazer
by TallYapflip
Summary: Humanity, left to its own devices for centuries, comes into contact with the Citadel Council. A misunderstanding leads to hostile first contact, and the UNSC is drawn into war with the Council shortly after the Insurrection's height. The Council finds itself face-to-face with a species that has broken the shackles of Mass Effect Technology. The Era of Humanity has only just begun.
1. Prologue: Energy

**Mass Effect: Trailblazer**

A Mass Effect/Halo Crossover by TallYapflip

 **Prologue: Energy**

 **September 21, 2531**

 **Aboard the** ** _UNSC Trailblazer_**

"Captain, ONI survey probes reported strange sensor readings from a nearby star cluster before going dark." The Sensors Officer declared, reading over the data from the recent mission update. "FLEETCOM Alpha wants us to investigate."

"What kind of sensor readings?" Captain Sypkin asked, making his way over from the center of the bridge, towards the front observation window.

"Preliminary data suggest Dark Energy, Captain." Henry, the AI attached to the _Trailblazer_ , explained. "Data from the probes indicate that this phenomenon is contained to a radius no greater than three kilometers. It's highly concentrated."

"ETA on our arrival?" Sypkin asked, looking to the AI's holographic image.

"System is just over nine light years out, sir." Navigation reported. "Just under two days."

"Navigation, set a course for the edge of this system, follow all standard operating procedures." Sypkin ordered. "Spool up the drive."

"Right away." Navigation responded.

Sypkin watched as the crew prepared for a standard Slipspace jump. The ship began moving on a vector that matched the rough location of the nearby star system, designated as "SH-224" on UNSC Star Charts.

"Spooling up the Slipspace drive." Navigation declared. "Diverting power from non-critical systems to engines."

Sypkin watched as the rift into the Slipstream was torn before the vessel. The gaping, swirling maw of energy lapped hungrily at the surrounding space, fighting the forces that had torn it open. In an instant, the space surrounding the Halberd-Class Destroyer shifted to complete blackness. The ship had successfully jumped into the Slipstream, just as it had dozens of times before.

XXXXX

 **September 23, 2531**

 **Bridge of the** ** _UNSC Trailblazer_** **, SH-224 System**

"Bringing us out of the Slipstream." Navigation reported.

Captain Sypkin stood behind the consoles showing the rough data about this system. It housed a single star, not unlike Sol, as well as six planets. Most were scarcely more than balls of uninhabitable rock or gas, but one laid in the habitable zone of the star. If they were lucky, this system could house a colony one day. Then, orbiting one of the gas giants, there was the Dark Energy signature. It was so miniscule compared to the planet that it could have easily evaded long-range scans from normal sensor equipment. It was no wonder that it took an ONI survey probe to actually detect it.

Sypkin glanced up from the console he was locked in a staring contest with. The small, white blip in the distance soon became an exit point from the Slipstream. An instant later, the vessel slipped back into the observable realm, sitting a few million kilometers away from the nearest planet, a small planetoid not unlike Pluto. "Launch high-intensity scans into the surrounding space and update FLEETCOM Alpha on our arrival. Send any relevant information we find to Admiral Cole."

"Right away." Sensors acknowledged.

Sypkin watched as the sensor data rolled in. Most of it was benign planetary data; atmosphere compositions, surface area, and all that. What truly caught his eye was the presence of _multiple_ Dark Energy signatures, all converged around the potentially-habitable world. As the data about this world rolled in, he could tell that it was no longer potentially-habitable, it _was_ habitable. Oxygen-Nitrogen atmosphere, minimal carbon dioxide, strong magnetosphere, all of the ingredients for colonization.

"Captain…" Sensors asked, catching his attention as the data continued to roll along the console. "You need to look at this."

"What is it?" Sypkin asked, walking to the Sensors station, Henry popping up on a nearby holographic pedestal.

"We're detecting two dozen signatures around the garden world…" The sensors officer explained, pointing to a visual depiction on the console's interface. "Temperatures in the millions, centigrade. They're arranged in what appears to be a holding pattern around the planet. They're maintaining a geosynchronous orbit."

The implications of that simple statement hit Sypkin like a truck. "Starship thrusters…" He mumbled, looking at the readout intensely. There was nothing else it could be. No natural phenomenon in the known universe could arrange heat reactions like this in such a perfect military holding pattern. "By God…" He muttered. "Did we just make first contact?"

"It appears so…" Henry spoke up, his voice remaining level and calm. "I am detecting an incoming laser detection scan. Whatever they are, they know we're here."

"Send the information to FLEETCOM immediately!" Sypkin ordered. "Bring the ship to alert status."

"Slipspace comm sent, arrival in twenty minutes." Henry said. In an instant, he turned to face Sypkin. "Captain, I am detecting a gravitational anomaly twenty thousand kilometers off of our bow!"

Before the Captain could register what the AI had just told him, a vessel appeared before the observation deck, followed by six others of similar make. The forward vessel appeared to be just a bit smaller than the _Trailblazer_ , while the others were about half the size of the destroyer. "Oh my God…" Sypkin muttered, looking out at the vessels before him.

The entire bridge had fallen silent as the crew looked on in wonder. They had just made first contact with an alien race. "Sir…" Sensors reported, glancing back over to her console. "We're detecting a more in-depth scan."

"Henry, attempt to communicate." Sypkin ordered. "Dig the First Contact Packet out and send it over all frequencies."

"Right away." Henry responded.

Sypkin continued to stare out in wonder, but his gaze was interrupted by the Sensors station calling out, panic seeping through her words. "Captain, vessels are diverting power! They're charging weapons!"

Sypkin's heart sank into his stomach. This wasn't how he hoped First Contact would go, but he knew protocol. "Charge forward MAC, fire all ARCHER missiles!"

The last thing the Captain saw was a hypervelocity slug spearing through the observation window. In an instant, the _Trailblazer_ went up in flames as the internal missile magazines racked detonations across the decks, eventually culminating in the ship's reactor core destabilizing. In a few thousand years, the explosion would be visible from Earth, nothing more than a tiny blip against the star-lit sky.

XXXXX

 **October 17, 2531**

 **Bridge of the Valiant-Class** ** _UNSC Everest_** **, Command Cruiser of Battle Group X-Ray**

"Admiral, we'll be exiting the Slipstream in five minutes." Navigation Station declared.

"Battle Group X-Ray reports all hands at Combat Alert Alpha" Communications declared.

"Once we exit, divert all non-essential power to weapons systems and propulsion." Admiral Cole ordered. "Relay the general order to regroup on our flank once we reach SH-224."

"Right away."

Cole allowed himself to drift into his thoughts as he stared into the console before him. The _Trailblazer_ had gone dark, just like the ONI survey probe. The single message that the vessel's captain had managed to send back to FLEETCOM had given concrete proof of what mankind had been searching for: sentient life.

After receiving no confirmation of peaceful first contact from the _Trailblazer_ , HIGHCOM ordered the mobilization of the Navy and the formation of Battle Group X-Ray, a massive fleet of 70 combat vessels. Fifty of these were frigates and destroyers of varying classes, mostly Paris-Classes and Halberd-Classes. The capital-class vessels in the fleet, which totaled out to eight Halcyon-Class Light Cruisers, four Marathon-Class Heavy Cruisers, two Valiant-Class Super-Heavy Cruisers, three Poseidon-Class Light Carriers, two refit Phoenix-Class Colony Ships outfitted for combat, and the centerpiece for the fleet: the _UNSC Punic_ , one of the largest vessels ever constructed. The _Punic_ was a relatively new class of warship, designated as a supercarrier by the navy. It stretched just over four kilometers in length and carried as many fighters as the entirety of the Halcyon-class group. Heading this battle group was the _Everest_.

Thousands of potential strategies danced around in Cole's mind. Potential flanking maneuvers around the gas giant, covering fighter screens with fire support from the Phoenix-classes, potential boarding operations, and even the possibility of nuclear deployment.

"Admiral, we're leaving the Slipstream now!" Navigation declared.

Cole turned to look as the SH-224 system came into view. The fleet had emerged just under a million kilometers from the system's largest gas giant, with the Garden World directly off their bow. The distant world was little more than a dot in the distance, but it was visible. "Sir, we're detecting scanning arrays!"

"All ships, this is Admiral Cole." Cole said into his personal communications console that he often used to address fleets. "Establish a defensive phalanx in front of the Phoenix-classes. Charge forward MACs and begin closing the distance."

Cole watched as the seventy "acknowledged" pings danced across his command console. "Admiral, firing solutions prepared." Weapons Station declared. "Ready to fire on your mark."

"All ships, fire at will!" Cole ordered.

The _Everest_ shuddered slightly as the twin MAC cannons propelled their ferrous-tungsten slugs at 30,000 kilometers per second, appearing as little more than streaks of white against the black backdrop of space. Dozens of these projectiles streaked towards the planet's defenders, along with hundreds of ARCHER missiles. The First Contact War had begun.

XXXXX

 **October 17, 2157 (Council Date)**

 **Bridge of the** ** _PFS Phalanx_** **, Flagship of the Aephus Defense Fleet**

"General Arterius, sir!" Desolas waved his Commander's salute off as he stepped onto the bridge of his command ship, the largest dreadnought in the Turian fleet.

"What do we have?" Desolas asked, walking over to the central command terminal.

"We've confirmed the presence of artificial intelligence aboard the vessel we destroyed, along with nuclear arms." Commander Titus reported. "Hierarchy agrees, you made the right call."

"Did I?" He asked, gesturing to the holographic image before him. It depicted the anatomy of an alien not unlike an Asari, even mirroring the organ functions almost perfectly. There were quite literally three differences: skin tone, gender dichotomy, and the presence of fiber hair in the place of a fringe. "These creatures could have been peaceful… I gave the order when the report of AI Heuristics came through."

"Their AI was attempting to breach our firewalls." Titus consoled. "You acted in the security of the Hierarchy."

"How secure will the Hierarchy be if… when these aliens retaliate?" Desolas asked. "We know little about their capabilities. Everything aboard that vessel, save a few bodies and deactivated electronics, was destroyed."

"The absence of Element Zero in their ships is troubling…" Titus continued on that train of thought. "It's possible that their method of FTL is slower?"

"Given that they haven't responded yet, that's quite likely." Desolas agreed. "We've had time to shore up our defenses here… has the Hierarchy reported this contact to the Council?"

"Not yet." Titus answered. "We're awaiting confirmation from Palaven on whether or not we've breached the security protocols in their probe."

"General, we're detecting more of those rifts!" The female Turian sitting at the sensors station shouted. "Twenty million kilometers out!"

"How many?" Desolas asked, wheeling around to face the forward viewport.

"Seventy." The Sensors operator reported.

"Spirits…" Desolas muttered. "What's their fleet composition?"

"Sensors indicate fifty-two vessels at cruiser weight, seventeen at Dreadnought weight and… one larger than any we've ever seen." Sensors continued. "Length estimates put it at four thousand one hundred and twelve meters."

"By the Spirits, that shouldn't be possible…" Desolas walked over to confirm this. What he saw not only confirmed it, but it terrified him. Hundreds of smaller engine signatures were funneling out of the massive super-dreadnought, likely fighters. "Begin closing the distance and attempt a hail!"

"Sending the request now!" The comms officer reported.

"General, we're detecting massive energy spikes in the larger vessels!" The Sensors officer declared.

"Begin evasive maneuvers! Fire all forward batteries!" Desolas ordered. "Launch all fighters!"

Desolas watched the fifty vessels of the defense fleet return fire with their own mass drivers. The hypervelocity slugs soared in the direction of the incoming fleet. A few moments later, Desolas watched massive streaks of white zip past his vessel, undoubtedly the aliens' first volley. A momentary feeling of relief was soon replaced with dread as the slugs struck true against the shipyard orbiting the planet. Eight of the rounds impacted on the broad side of the orbital shipyard, flaring up in a brilliant flash as several megatons of energy were transferred instantly. The shipyard, in an instant, was reduced to rubble.

One of the cruisers on his port-side flank was struck by an incoming slug, striking against the bow armor. The metal projectile speared through the kinetic barriers in an instant, penetrating clean through the armor and exiting through the stern of the vessel. Desolas' heart sank into his stomach as he watched a _single_ round obliterate a heavy cruiser with little issue, then continue on past the planet unfazed.

"Prepare for a short-range FTL jump, bring us within five hundred thousand klicks." Desolas ordered.

XXXXX

 **Bridge of the** ** _UNSC Everest_**

"Twelve confirmed hits, Admiral." Weapons Station reported. "Four hostile contacts and one orbital construct destroyed."

"Enemies jumping to light-speed!" Sensors reported. "Gravitational anomalies on our flanks."

"Bring the frigates and destroyers about, engage them once they're out of FTL." Cole ordered. "Prepare ARCHER pods, activate Point-Defense."

"Done." Weapons reported.

Cole watched as the hostile fleet appeared out of FTL on the battle group's port and starboard flanks, just as intended. "Hostile flagship firing missiles on the _Punic_!"

"Redirect starboard Point-Defense." Cole calmly ordered. "Direct ARCHERs on their engines and weapons hardpoints."

"Hostile fighters converging on the _Tempest_ , overwhelming autocannons." His AI, Sara, declared. "Re-directing SABRE wings to assist."

"Sir, autocannon fire is ineffective, hostiles have some form of shielding." Weapons declared.

"Fire SHIVA warhead on the hostile flagship, conceal it in an ARCHER swarm." Cole ordered.

"Nuke away!" Weapons declared over the cacophony of voices on the bridge. After a moment, the report on the missile's effectiveness was reported. "Good hit, minimal damage to armor, but shields were overloaded. Autocannons firing for effect."

"Focus engines." Cole ordered. "Order the fleet to limit fire on hostile flagship, we're boarding it."

"Right away." Sara responded.

"Four Paris-Classes reporting multiple hull breaches and catastrophic engine failure!" Comms reported.

Cole bit back a curse. These aliens were certainly aggressive, that much had been confirmed by First Contact. He never would have imagined them closing the distance on a numerically-superior force. "Hostile force?"

"Steadily taking casualties, reduced to twenty six active combatant vessels." Sensors reported.

"Admiral!" Engineering called out. "Engine three reports heavy damage, we've lost it."

"Maintain vector." Cole calmly stated. "Roll the ship eight degrees to minimize engine damage."

"Firing RCS thrusters!" Navigation ordered. "Bringing dorsal weapons systems online."

Cole watched as the battle continued to rage on. The Frigates in the fleet were getting hammered by the hostile fleet and sustaining heavy losses, but the capital ships were faring rather well all things considered. Even while being flanked and lacking the shield tech of these aliens, Battle Group X-Ray was taking minimal casualties. The meters-thick armor of the _Everest_ was more than capable of mitigating any damage from the alien missiles or mass accelerators.

After twenty minutes of intense knife-fighting between the two fleets, the UNSC fleet had reduced the alien fleet to ruin, while sustaining fifteen frigate casualties, eight destroyer casualties, a crippled Halcyon, slight damage to a Marathon's starboard plating, and minor damage to the _Everest_ 's engines. The largest of the alien vessels, measuring in at just over a kilometer, had been utterly devastated when the destroyers had managed to fire off a MAC. One of the two larger vessels had been completely split in half by the impacting slug, while the other drifted with no engine power and all of its weapons disabled. UNSC Fighters had proven far faster, but lacking the maneuverability than the alien counterparts, taking some heavy casualties in the initial stages of the engagement, but later compensating.

" _Spirit of Fire_ , this is Admiral Cole." Cole began, keying a secure channel to Captain Cutter. "Dispatch five platoons of Marines and SPARTAN Red Team for a boarding operation of the hostile command ship, full pressure gear."

"Yes, sir." Cutter answered.

XXXXX

 **Bridge of the** ** _PFS Phalanx_**

"Report!" Desolas ordered, watching the blocky, grey ships drift past his own. They had seemingly crippled his ship intentionally. They were left with no engines, no operational weapons, and a rapidly-deteriorating power situation. The normally warm lights of the bridge were replaced by the sickly red emergency lights as the ship's VI automatically adjusted power to the life support and artificial gravity systems.

"Deck 13 has had its hull plating stripped, Mass Effect field generators are down!" The engineering station reported, a heavy crack present on the side of her carapace after being thrown about from the nuclear impact. "Sensors are down, we're drifting and blind."

"Damn it…"

"General!" A Platoon Leader from Deck 13 came over the ship's internal communications network, his voice reverberating throughout the bridge. "Hostile boarding action!"

"Hold them back!" Desolas ordered. "Fireteam Crux is en-route to assist."

"Copy that, General." Desolas could swear that he heard the sound of combustion ballistic weapons over the communicator, but he shoved that aside. His mind _had_ to be playing tricks on him. "We'll hold- Spirits, what is that?!"

"Lieutenant?" Desolas asked, only to be met with static.

"General, we're detecting unknown bio signatures on Decks 13, 12, 9, and 5." The Sensors station barked.

"Damnit… they've already pushed in!" Desolas shouted, walking over to the arms locker by the airlock. He pulled a Phaeston assault rifle from the rack, slapping a thermal clip into the side. "General quarters, all hands, hold your positions! We have hostiles on board!"

Desolas watched as his bridge crew scrambled into defensible positions across the cavernous CIC. The few soldiers among the sailors took up positions near the bulkheads, their rifles propped up against inert computer consoles. Desolas took up position behind his command console, watching the right-most bulkhead.

After a few minutes of eerie silence, the distinct sounds of explosions could be heard throughout the deck. His communicator lit up with updates on the alien positions before being swiftly silenced by gunfire. The longer he listened, the more sure he was. These aliens were using firearms. In an instant, the deck went silent.

"Fireteams, report!" Desolas ordered, only to be met with silence.

In an instant, the two bulkheads leading into the CIC exploded inwards, scattering shrapnel throughout the deck. Two of the Turian Marines near the front of the defenses were peppered by large, sharpened metal shrapnel. Both were eviscerated by the sheer force of the flying metal.

Dozens of Phaeston rifles lit up the bulkheads, their tiny projectiles ricocheting off of reinforced plating, sending sparks flying in all directions. A small group of six of the aliens were shredded by the incoming fire, four in the left bulkhead, two in the right. Their armored bodies clattered to the floor, along with their weapons. He heard a voice call out in a guttural, alien language. It almost sounded as if the voice was being projected through a speaker. Desolas couldn't even dream to understand the language, it was so foreign to him. It simply sounded like gibberish.

"Marines, port side flank! Red Team, starboard flank." The voice barked out. "Prep stun grenades, insert on my mark. Three… two… one… mark!"

Desolas saw four small cylindrical objects clatter to the floor, bounding off of walls. "Grenade!" He shouted, ducking behind the console. A blinding flash of white light and a deafening roar overtook the room. Soldiers and sailors shouted out in confusion, their vision overtaken by white and their ears ringing.

Desolas shook his head, hoping to clear his vision and remove the ringing in his ears. As his auditory senses slowly returned, he heard the sounds of pained screaming, the steady staccato of automatic gunfire, and the sounds of metal meeting flesh. As he popped out from cover to open fire, a heavy metal gauntlet wrapped around his neck in a vice grip. His eyes widened as he found himself face-to-face with a reflective gold visor.

He didn't manage to get a good look at the armored creature before it sent a fist into his carapace, his vision fading to black a moment later.

XXXXX

 **Bridge of the** ** _UNSC Everest_**

"Casualty report?" Cole asked, hearing the "Mission Complete" ping from Red Team.

"Red Team suffered no casualties, Admiral." SPARTAN Jerome responded, curtly. "Forty eight Marine casualties in the boarding operation, potential hostile HVT secured."

"Potential HVT?" Cole asked.

"Gold markings on the armored collar." Jerome responded. "Appear to denote rank, possible captain or admiral."

"Copy that, Red Team." Cole returned. "Is the hostile vessel secured?"

"Alpha and Bravo platoons are sweeping the ship's lower decks for survivors." Jerome answered. "Further orders?"

"Hold position on the bridge, report in once the vessel is secured and ONI Section One personnel will come aboard."

"Copy, Red Team out." Jerome cut the communication.

"Admiral, HIGHCOM acknowledges our communication." Sara popped up on the holographic pedestal beside Cole. "Reinforcements are en-route from Reach, ETA: three weeks. Our standing orders are to secure the system, blockade the alien world, and await further direction."

"Relay the order to the fleet." Cole commanded. "Dispatch Marathon Group Alpha to the world and destroy any artificial satellites. Launch planetary scans and report any intelligence directly to the _Everest_."

"Understood." Sara acknowledged.

"Any idea what this is?" Cole gestured to the scan results. They had scanned the source of the dark energy signature. It was a strange, three kilometer-long object shaped vaguely like a teardrop tuning fork. It had a pair of central rings that rapidly rotated around a mass of blue light.

"Preliminary data suggests that it is a method of FTL travel, utilizing an unknown element to propel ships while simultaneously lowering their mass." Sara explained. "This warrants further study."

"Agreed… dispatch Halcyon Group Echo to defend against possible counter-attack. Position them at regular intervals around the device."

"Understood, Admiral." Sara responded.

 **A/N:**

 **After thinking long and hard about publishing this, I've decided to go through with it. A few people have asked me to do a direct Halo/ME Crossover for quite some time now, and I've had this idea floating around in my head for the better part of six months or so.**

 **This story will be taking the place of one other that's currently being written. This isn't to say that it'll be abandoned. Rather, I'll be re-writing** ** _To Last a Thousand Years_** **to better fit with the idea I have for it (Basically, I'm re-writing the entire alternate history, which will take time.) So basically, expect this to take the place of that one for the next little while.**

 **Time for a bit of outside worldbuilding on this fic. Basically, there were never any Prothean Ruins on Mars. The UNSC formed, and followed the Halo timeline up until the supposed beginning of the Human-Covenant War, which also has not happened. The UNSC has been able to expand and grow to their Golden-Age height, completely unaware of the Council or other alien life until now. The Forerunners still exist, and the UNSC is well-aware of this fact. In other words, the UNSC has no fancy reverse-engineered energy shields or plasma weaponry. Their ships are still relatively slow (compared to Covenant Slipspace drives, and especially the Mass Relays), but much of their space lies outside the Relay Network.**

 **Now that that's out of the way, I hope you all enjoyed the relatively short prologue to this new story. Let me know what you think, I appreciate every review that comes my way, and I do my best to answer them at the end of every update (if applicable).**


	2. Chapter 1: Invasion

**Chapter 1: Invasion**

 **October 19, 2531**

 **Brig of the** ** _UNSC Everest_**

Cole stepped off of the elevator, flanked on either side by ODSTs in their black armor. "Sara, translation software update?"

"I have decoded their language and syntax." Sara answered. "It's unusual, but their ship's systems and digital codex provided us with the necessary information to create a relatively complete translator. It should suffice for an interrogation, but I would recommend limiting it to words with fewer syllables."

"ODSTs, sync with Sara over the Battle-Net." Cole ordered.

"Aye, sir." The ODST to his right, one Sergeant McCleary acknowledged.

Cole marched over to the biometric scanner on a nearby cell door. He placed his eye against the scanner, allowing the system to confirm his identity. As the console lit up in green, Cole took a step back, allowing the ODSTs to enter first.

The two black-clad ODSTs stepped up to the door, keying the activation command from the console. As the door's hydraulics hissed, the two raised their M7 SMGs, training them directly at Desolas' torso. "Back of the room, now!" McCleary ordered.

Desolas raised his hands, stepping back towards the far wall, keeping his eyes trained on the two armored aliens before him. All of this time locked away on their ship, and still he had never seen one of their faces. All of them were concealed behind this black armor, their visors heavily tinted. Strangely enough, now he could understand them. These aliens were speaking Turian. More likely, they were using translators, but it was still unnerving. In no time at all, these aliens had deciphered his kind's language.

As he complied with their orders, one of the two soldiers gave a quick motion to the room outside his cell. It was long, brightly lit, and completely grey. The drab internals of this ship spoke wonders to him of their culture. They were likely highly militaristic, possibly more so than his own kind.

Desolas was truly surprised to see an unarmored alien step through the cell door. He was clad in a grey uniform that was adorned with medals and pins. The strange alien text on a metal plate just above his heart read out "Adm. Preston J. Cole." The meaning was lost to Desolas.

The alien's dark brown eyes bore into his own. Despite his shorter stature than Desolas, he commanded a certain measure of respect from his stance. He wasn't afraid, he had two of his soldiers standing at his side. "Name, rank, and species." The alien demanded.

"W-What?" Desolas asked.

"What is your name, rank, and species?" The alien asked again.

"General Desolas Arterius of the Turian Hierarchy, Commander of the Aephus Defense Fleet." Desolas curtly replied. He did as he was trained to do, provide his name and rank, and nothing more.

"Native to the Turian homeworld of Palaven, Trebia System, precisely four thousand and thirty six light years from this system." The alien finished for him. In response, Desolas' eyes went wide. Cole allowed himself a small smirk as Sara fed information from the captured codex directly into his neural implant.

"What do you want, alien?" Desolas asked, venom in his words.

"Answers." Cole responed without missing a beat. "Your kind destroyed a Halberd-Class Destroyer two weeks ago… why?" At Desolas' silence, Cole motioned to McCleary. Wordlessly, the ODST stepped forward and brought the butt of his SMG into Desolas' gut, causing him to double over in pain. "I'll ask one more time… why?" McCleary accented the gravity of Cole's "request" by leveling his SMG directly at Desolas' carapace.

"Your kind attempted to breach our ship's firewalls with artificial intelligence!" Desolas shouted out, accusatorily. "We retaliated!"

"Our AI was attempting contact." Cole deadpanned. "What is your fleet strength?"

"Go to hell, alien!" Desolas shouted, his face making a quick meeting with the back of McCleary's SMG.

"It's Human." Cole deadpanned. "We can continue our discussion after we've secured the planet. ODSTs, at ease!"

XXXXX

 **October 19, 2153**

 **Council Chambers, Citadel**

"Are these reports accurate, Primarch Fedorian?" Councilor Tevos asked, reading over the datapad before her.

"Yes, Councilor." Fedorian responded with a curt nod. "A hostile vessel jumped into Aephus' system and attempted to breach the firewalls of the _PFS Artimec_ with an artificial intelligence. General Arterius retaliated with force."

"And now you've lost contact with Aephus' defense fleet?" Councilor Sparatus asked.

"Yes… the last message burst we received confirmed the presence of seventy vessels with identical engine signatures to the first." Fedorian continued. "Aephus has gone dark and any survey vessels or probes we've sent have been destroyed."

"This is troubling…" Councilor Valern added. "You say that their ships emerged from rifts?"

"Yes, they appeared out of nowhere." Fedorian confirmed. "Scans we received showed zero traces of Element Zero aboard these vessels, as well as the absence of kinetic barriers."

"These vessels are unshielded, and General Arterius was still defeated?" Sparatus asked, confused.

"That's the extent of what the scans told us, they're a mystery." Fedorian admitted. "A week prior to the attack, we discovered a probe arriving by the same method as the ships. We've recovered it and are attempting to breach the security protocols. It's proving more difficult than we imagined."

"If we're all in agreement, we need to dispatch a fleet to Aephus immediately." Sparatus declared. "There's no telling what their objectives are, and we need to respond accordingly."

"Agreed." Valern nodded.

"We _should_ be attempting to talk with them." Tevos retorted. "It's possible that this was a misunderstanding."

"It stopped being a misunderstanding when a Turian colony fell, Tevos." Sparatus responded, glaring at her. "They've made their intentions clear."

"Very well… we will mobilize a fleet to re-take the system." Tevos relented. "I will work with the Asari Government to assemble a first contact party in the hopes of ending this war before it escalates further."

XXXXX

 **October 30, 2531**

 **Bridge of the** ** _Everest_** **.**

"Admiral, hostile contacts arriving in-system!" Sensors declared. "Eighty vessels, mostly cruisers. Designs indicate multiple species."

"Charge forward MAC cannons and bring the fleet to alert status!" Cole ordered, wheeling around to face his command console. He had read over much of the Turian codex. He knew that it was likely that this "Council" would launch a military campaign to retake this planet. He had repositioned the fleet for a defensive engagement, supplementing the Halcyon Group with a Valiant-class and twelve Halberd-classes for fire support and ordering them to surround the Mass Relay at range.

"MACs charged, ready to fire on your command!" Weapons declared.

"All ships, open fire!" Cole ordered. "Order the Halcyon group at the object to engage at range. Marathons and Halberds engage at current distance."

"Order relayed, Admiral. All vessels firing on targets." Weapons explained.

Cole watched as the MAC slugs streaked towards their targets. "Authorize SHIVA launches across the board, target their dreadnoughts."

"Halcyon-class _Texas_ reporting hull breaches!" Comms declared. "She's limping back to our position and the _Meridian, Munich,_ and _Northstar_ are providing cover for her retreat."

"MAC rounds effective, Admiral. We're reporting that two of their three dreadnoughts are venting atmosphere and are disabled."

"Incoming volley!"

"All hands, brace for impact!" Cole shouted. The _Everest_ shook as the barrage of mass accelerators slammed into her hull. The lights flickered for a moment before stabilizing. "Damage report!"

"Minimal damage, Admiral! Forward sensors array is disabled and requires EVA repairs."

"Angle the vessel fifteen degrees to starboard!" Cole ordered.

"Admiral, we have Slipspace ruptures just off our battle cluster." Sensors happily declared. "Admiral Harper's arrived!"

"Admiral Cole, this as Fleet Admiral Harper, how copy?" Harper's rough voice came over the Battlenet.

"We read you clear, Harper." Cole responded, allowing himself a smile. "Fire at will."

"With pleasure." Cole watched as the fifteen Marathon-Class Cruisers lit up the council fleet with their MACs from their position off of X-Ray's port-side flank. The 60-vessel armada was mostly made up of Marathons and Paris-classes, all of which were escorting 10 Phoenix-Classes carrying a full invasion force.

"Admiral, hostiles retreating!" Sensors declared. Cole watched as the few remaining Council vessels turned tail and ran through the Relay. All that was left of the battle was the wreckage of starships, UNSC and Council alike, and drifting life pods.

"Order the Halcyons to pull back to the rendezvous point in Sector Romeo-21." Cole commanded. "Frigate and Destroyer formations around the Mass Relay, begin recovering lifeboats and alien escape pods. Exercise extreme caution with alien technology, take any prisoners that you can." Cole barked out to the Communications ensign. He turned his attention to his command console, bringing up the communications with Admiral Harper's command cruiser, the Marathon-Class _Saratoga_. "Harper, your cruisers will cover the Mass Relay. Prepare Phoenix-Class transport vessels for a landing on the planet. Transferring planetary topography now."

"Understood, Admiral." Harper answered. "Dispatching Phoenix-Classes now."

XXXXX

 **October 30, 2531**

 ** _UNSC Everest,_** **Aephus High Orbit**

"Our buddies in the Marines are gonna to be riding down to that planet in the air-conditioned comfort of a DT-77. Us? We don't have that luxury! How do we go?!" Major Vaughn shouted out to the assembled company of ODSTs before him.

"We go feet first!" The ODSTs shouted out in return.

"Damn right we do!" Vaughn responded, pulling his helmet over his head. "Report to your pods and get set for a combat drop!"

"Aye, sir!" The ODSTs shouted out, scrambling for their SOEIV pods. MA5Ds, M7s, and M6s were locked into their retention locks in the pods, ODSTs strapped themselves in, and the pods hissed closed, sealing tight.

"Bravo-Actual, drop in five… four… three… two… one!" The crewman manning the SOEIV bay called out over the communications. As his countdown completed, the pods were released.

Four hundred SOEIV pods, each bearing an ODST, were dropped from the ventral side of the _Everest_. Thousands more pods were deployed from the various Capital Cruisers orbiting Aephus, all of them bearing down on the planet's surface at supersonic speeds. Friction heat sparked and jumped from the underside of the pods as they met the upper atmosphere. "Bravo Company, comms check!" Vaughn called over the company-wide BattleNet.

"Alpha Platoon, we copy."

"Bravo Platoon, we read you."

"Charlie reads you loud and clear, Major."

"Delta reads."

"Echo reporting."

"Foxtrot ready."

"Golf acknowledges."

"Hotel reports comms are green."

"India reads loud and clear."

As one of the pods was struck by ground-based AA fire, Vaughn came back over the BattleNet. "Hostile AA, hold on! Touchdown in forty seconds."

Each second felt like hours to the ODSTs, watching golden tracers streak past them. As the pods reached 15,000 meters, they engaged their retrograde thrusters and deployed their drag-chutes. Their speed dropped, and at 1,000 meters, the drag-chutes snapped off. In an instant, thousands of SOEIV pods struck the surface of the planet. Some pods hissed open rather gracefully, others engaged the shaped charges in the doors, blasting them off and allowing the occupants to jump out and begin fighting.

Vaughn vacated his pod, grabbing his MA5 and M6 SOCOM. They had landed a klick off from their intended drop zone, not bad by combat drop standards. They were just outside a major city, anti-air fire flaring up from the urban jungle before them. The skies above looked like Armageddon raining down, with hundreds of pods still screaming in their descent towards the surface. "Bravo Company, defensive positions!" Vaughn ordered.

The ODSTs re-positioned to take cover behind their drop pods. The few troopers scattered throughout the company carrying SRS-99C sniper rifles scanned the surrounding area for hostiles. "Hostile contact!" Echo Platoon's marksman shouted. "1.5 klicks Northeast, bearing 63. Platoon-strength, converging on our location."

"You're cleared to engage!" Vaughn shouted out. At his word, four rounds cracked off in quick succession.

"Three down, rest scrambling for cover in the tree-line." Echo's marksman reported. "Reloading and re-engaging." As the marksman slid a new magazine into her rifle, popping out of her armored cover once again to open fire, a round cracked clean through her visor, sending her to the ground.

"Sniper!" One of Echo's DMR-wielding corpsmen shouted. He quickly broke cover, sprinting over to the marksman's pod, silently praying for a graze wound. His hopes were immediately swept away as he saw the scope of the damage. The round had entered cleanly through her nose and penetrated through her skull. A gaping hole was leaking gray matter and blood from the back of her head. There was nothing he could do for her.

"India, do you have eyes?" Vaughn asked, staying in cover.

"Negative, scanning the city." India Platoon's marksman responded. As a round whizzed past his head, he scrambled back for cover. "Sniper spotted, 1.7 klicks out, third floor, grey building."

"All of them are fucking grey!" Alpha's marksman responded, switching his optics over to FLIR.

"MG fire!" Bravo reported. They had dropped a hundred meters further north than the rest of the Company, and all 30 of their troopers were left with their flanks exposed. "We need covering fire!" A grunt was heard over the comms as an explosion rocked the ground beneath them. "Fuckers have APCs! I repeat: Alien freaks have APCs!"

"Hotel, sweep East!" Vaughn ordered. "Cover Bravo from the rocks!"

"Copy!" Hotel-Actual reported. "Hotel Platoon, on me!"

Vaughn watched as his troopers broke cover to run for the rocky outcropping eighty meters to their East. Impacting fire trailed behind them, catching a few of the troopers as they ran. Four of their 30 ODSTs were struck directly, bringing them to the ground.

"Sniper spotted!" Alpha's marksman reported, his rifle barking out. "He's down!"

"Alpha, India, and Foxtrot, move up!" Vaughn ordered, falling in with the rest of Alpha Platoon as they moved up to regroup with Bravo. He brought his MA5 up to his shoulder, firing off a burst as he ran. All he could do was hope that his fire would suppress them.

"Air support is one mike out, Bravo Company, hold tight!" Their logistics team reported from the _Everest_. "Armor is en-route!"

"Armor in one!" Vaughn called out, throwing himself to the ground behind a small rise in the dirt. A few of his troopers met him a moment later, all of them panting and heaving.

"Artillery incoming!" Bravo reported. "Aliens are moving up!"

"Keep pushing!" Vaughn ordered, bringing himself up to a kneeling position and firing on an advancing Turian from 300 meters. As he saw a slight flash of blue fly out from around the alien, one of his final rounds impacted on the Turian's neck, bringing it down. _Ten rounds to kill one…_ He thought to himself as he glanced down at the LED display of his rifle before swinging it about to engage another.

XXXXX

"Hell yeah!" One of India Platoon's ODSTs shouted out as a Pelican dropped a Scorpion beside the drop pods.

Bravo Company had managed to hold their ground long enough for the Shortswords from orbit to blanket the treeline in ordinance and autocannon fire, but not without significant losses. Sixty of their 250-man company had been killed or wounded, and they were just now receiving armored and air support.

"Bravo Company, mount up!" Vaughn ordered. At his word, the ODSTs under his command clambered into the nearest vehicle, with those designated climbing into the four Scorpion tanks that had been dropped. Along with the tanks, the Navy had delivered 15 Warthogs outfitted with chain guns, 3 Cobras, 2 Wolverines, and 5 Warthog APCs. The troopers that couldn't fit in the APCs or armed Warthogs climbed onto the tread covers of the tanks.

Vaughn settled into the hull MG on a Scorpion, racking back the charging handle and chambering a .50 caliber round from the belt. After receiving the ping from the fleet in orbit, giving the ground forces clearance to move in, Vaughn watched as the city in the distance came under bombardment from low-yield MAC strikes. The heavy slugs speared through buildings, tossing dust and debris into the atmosphere. The brilliant white streaks of light rained down on the settlement as the ODSTs advanced from the southern flank.

On the other end of the city, 7,500 Marines advanced on the settlement from the North. 5,000 moved in from the eastern and western flanks. Each of the battalions were outfitted with armored and mechanized support, as well as light air support from AV-14 Hornets or Vulture heavy VTOLs. Vaughn felt the heavy tank beneath him lurch forward as it started advancing. It only took a few minutes for the UNSC forces to converge on the city, and Vaughn felt an involuntary chill run the length of his spine as he looked out on the shattered cityscape around him.

The rather small city around him was absolutely pulverized by the MAC bombardment, reducing many of the larger buildings in the settlement to dust. There was a thick cloud of dust and ash in the air around the city, blanketing all visible structures in an oppressively dark cloud. It was quite evident that these aliens weren't expecting an invasion force here, judging by the bodies that littered the streets.

The bird-like aliens known as Turians lined the streets of the city, their bodies twisted and mangled from the intense, five-minute MAC bombardment. Limbs were torn from bodies, bony carapace and flesh alike was torn away. It was a harrowing sight: a formerly lively city reduced to rubble over the span of a few short minutes. The ODST Major couldn't help but draw parallels between this sight and the ones he saw during the height of the Insurrection. The UNSC had been ruthless then, storming through resisting cities and tearing the Innies out at the roots.

His body was on autopilot, sweeping any surviving structures with the barrel of his .50, waiting for the rounds to start flying so he could return the gesture in kind. When it didn't come, the reality of the situation started to sink in. After clearing the first few blocks, he became convinced that there were _no_ survivors from that bombardment. The fleet had overestimated the defenders, and had used absolutely overwhelming force.

His suspicions were proven right when the "Sector Clear" pings started dancing across his HUD. Marines and ODSTs had begun going door-to-door, building-to-building to search for possible resistance. There was none.

XXXXX

"Admiral… ground forces confirm no resistance planetside." Cole looked up from his command console. "The planet's ours."

"Good…" Cole sighed. "Any word on that Mass Relay?"

"Our ships can't seem to use it." The ensign responded. "According to the Codex we recovered, it needs to communicate with something called an 'Element Zero' drive."

"Well… that certainly complicates things for us." Cole's attention turned to the new voice from the other end of the bridge. He spotted a woman clad in the black uniform of the Office of Naval Intelligence, black hair neatly kept up in a bun as per military regs.

"Agent Osman…" Cole said, turning to face the SPARTAN wash-out. Nobody else on this bridge knew her true identity, but Cole did. Being a member of HIGHCOM had its benefits, knowing the true nature of Admiral Parangosky's protégé was certainly one of them. She had a few of the biological augmentations of the SPARTAN IIs, but she lacked the skeletal augs. Outside her immense height for a woman, she appeared completely normal. "To what do I owe the pleasure?" He had known that she had come aboard, and fully expected her to be on the bridge within minutes of arriving. She certainly carried her mentor's nature around with her.

"The Office has new orders for Battle Group X-Ray." Osman answered, swiping a hand across her datapad as she handed it over to Cole. "Operational security mandated that these orders be delivered personally."

Cole took the datapad, scanning over the contents. Battle Group X-Ray, upon receiving reinforcements from the Sigma Octanus IV Defense Fleet, was to make a direct Slipspace jump to the Castellus system in the Turian-controlled Apien Crest Cluster, eliminating all hostile fleet assets in the system and paving the way for an attack on Palaven. According to these orders, the reinforcements would be arriving in a matter of days. Apparently, ONI had dispatched a Stealth Prowler to the system prior to the invasion of Aephus, which had reported a fleet of 126 vessels of Turian design in the system. Doing some basic math in his head, Cole figured that it would take just over two months at maximum speed to reach this system. During that time, the Turians would have more than enough time to shore up their defenses.

Reading a bit further into the campaign's battle plans, he saw that two days after his arrival in the system, an armada made up of the Core Defense Fleet, The 1st Fleet, The 2nd Fleet, and the 4th Fleet would arrive in Castellus. Cole was generally not in favor of such brash, shock-and-awe tactics, but they would likely have to suffice for a conflict like this one. He felt a bit better, seeing that one of the largest armadas in history would be following him into the fire.

After a short sigh, Cole looked up to Osman. "Consider it done."

XXXXX

 **December 26, 2531. Castellus System (Slipstream Space)**

Cole anxiously tapped his fingers against the metal edge of his command console, awaiting the impending return to real space. Battle Group X-Ray, now 140 vessels in strength, was mere moments from breaching the heart of Turian space and securing a point for the future attack on Palaven.

Now composed of three Punic-Class Supercarriers, three Epoch-Class Heavy Carriers, twenty Valiant-Class Superheavy Cruisers, twenty Marathon-Class Heavy Cruisers, four refit Phoenix-Class Colony Vessels, Thirty Halcyon-Class Light Cruisers, twenty Gorgon-Class Heavy Destroyers, ten Halberd-Class Destroyers, and thirty Frigates and Corvettes of varying classes. This was, by far, the largest single fleet that Admiral Cole had ever presided over, and the most lives he had to lose if something were to go wrong.

He took some comfort in the fact that a _massive_ armada was only a few days behind him. The fleet, known as Strike Group Alpha, was over 300 vessels in total. The sheer number of ships was more than any admiral could ever hope to command over the duration of their entire career, and it very clearly marked a shift in doctrine. The UNSC was not going to take any chances with this war, and they would be using overwhelming force if necessary.

Updates were streaming in from the UNSC Battlenet. Hundreds and hundreds of vessels were being rallied in the Outer Colonies for a wide range of missions into the galaxy. Cole had seen reports of fleets bound for small colonies, important trade routes, and even the Salarian Homeworld of Sur'Kesh. Apparently, ONI had even tossed the idea around of dispatching a survey mission to the Asari homeworld of Thessia, but they had scrapped that mission in favor of a recon mission to a Turian system known as Haliat. Once word had made it to HIGHCOM that they were not facing a single alien race, but rather a coalition of alien species, it was decided that their primary objective would be to pacify and blockade the Turian and Salarian Homeworlds, opening up a route to attack the seat of power for this Council: The Citadel.

It hadn't taken long for Cole to assist in formulating a new protocol for this engagement. All vessels under his command, should they come under threat of being captured by the enemy, are to jettison their AI core and wipe all ship systems. In the event that jettisoning the core and wiping systems is impossible, the presiding Captain is mandated, under Admiral Cole's authority, to overload their Slipspace drives and destroy the vessel. HIGHCOM had even been considering adopting his protocol across the board for the Navy. Regardless of the apparent limitations of the alien's FTL method, they could _not_ risk Earth's location falling into the enemy's hands. They had gotten lucky with the ONI Probe, lacking any navigational data on Human space due to the sensitive nature of its mission, not to mention its ownership by the secretive Office of Naval Intelligence, but they couldn't afford any more risks with Earth's security.

Cole was yanked out of his inner musings by a shout from the navigations ensign. "Admiral, we are dropping out of Slipspace."

Cole watched as the black backdrop of Slipspace gave way to the star-lit canvas that was the Milky Way. The Castellus system was sparse, only containing a few worlds. The only habitable planet, according to the captured Codex, was a single garden world that served as a mining colony. Regardless, in the wake of First Contact, the Turians had shored up their defenses in this system, just as Cole had predicted they would.

He saw the sensors station transfer a readout to his command console, seeing a fleet of 160 vessels bearing the markings of the Turian Hierarchy, as well as the Salarian Union and Asari Republics. Most of the enemy vessels were their equivalent to a cruiser, with four dreadnoughts and a healthy support fleet of frigates and cruisers to supplement their capital ships. The moment the hostile fleet composition passed his console, Cole shouted out in a general communication to all UNSC fleet assets under his command. "Battle Group X-Ray, fire at will!"

 **A/N:**

 **I had most of this chapter written down too, so I figured I'd throw this update down while I was at it.**

 **Holy shit, not even twenty four hours after my releasing this story and it's already at over 60 follows. Jesus, you guys work fast.**

 **Like I said, here's me answering the reviews I got:**

 **Time Reflects- Thanks, my dude. I'm glad you like it.**

 **RedBarchetta28- I appreciate you taking up reading this one as well, man. I'm glad you like it so far.**

 **iZuikaku- Did someone say bomb Palaven?**

 **LanzCorporalAssWipe- I really appreciate that man, thanks for picking up the fic. Hope this update was soon enough ;).**

 **Lanzador- After looking a bit deeper into the Punic-Class Supercarrier, I think I see where my mistake came from. One source cites it as "Over 3 Kilometers in length", while another cites it as "Approx. 4000 Meters". The "Over 3km" one was the one I looked at, and I truthfully had no idea about the conflicting sizes between wikis. I figure there's no harm in going back and changing it, so it should be changed by the time this update is out.**

 **As for the things I'll be incorporating from Halo canon, I'll say this much: The galaxy is identical to the Halo-verse Milky Way as of 2531 (With the exception of all the glassed planets, of course. Plus a few other minor differences that will be brought to light later.)**

 **Artyom-Dreizhen- From my understanding, UNSC Slipspace travel around the mid-26** **th** **century was much slower than the Covenant's (Prime example being Cortana's line from Halo: CE "Covenant ships have always been faster"). The way I see it comparing to Council-grade FTL would be like this: In the normal FTL (like the** ** _Normandy_** **hopping between systems in ME2), they're relatively comparable with the Council possibly being a** ** _bit_** **faster. When it comes to long distance travel via the Mass Relays, the Council can move exponentially faster than the UNSC, but only in a predetermined path.**

 **As for the Punic-Class, it's 4km now, yes. A minor misunderstanding on my part. As for the Forerunner Ruins, I'll just say that the galaxy is almost identical to the Halo-verse's.**

 **Kamikage86- Hope this update was quick enough ;).**

 **Gbav115- Luckily, you didn't have to wait very long.**

 **Anthony11899- I'll say this much: The story will not be entirely focused around the First Contact War. Also, I'm glad I could fill the niche for you, my dude.**

 **Coduss- The Forerunners have no real population to speak of. Like I said, the galaxy is** ** _almost_** **identical to Halo's own. As for the Covenant, we'll have to wait and see.**

 **UNSC Know Your Place- I'll say this much in regards to the Reapers/Flood: The Flood was still created by the Precursors, and the Reapers will play a role in this story, but not as major as they did in ME canon.**

 **Kurogane7- My mentality with the easy destruction of the** ** _Trailblazer_** **was basically this: As mentioned throughout the Halo canon, UNSC ships tended to have a glaring weakness compared to their alien counterparts: an exposed bridge. Naturally, given that the bridge of the Halberd-Class is one of the most-exposed of any UNSC warships, sitting at the very top of the vessel's hull, near the bow plating where it begins to slope inwards, it's a relatively easy target. That's the primary reason I made a special note of the Turian weapon punching through the observation window, as well as** ** _all_** **of the Turian vessels charging weapons. It wasn't a single Turian cruiser that took down the** ** _Trailblazer_** **, it was a Cruiser and nineteen Frigates. The admittedly tough armor of the Halberd-Class is really only effective from the front, due to the sloped nature of it.**

 **A slug coming in at 1.3% Light Speed (Which, correct me if I'm wrong, is the average speed of a Council-grade Mass Driver) would definitely bounce off the two meter-thick sloped armor of a Halberd's bow, but the Bridge would not have the same resistance to the slug. Neither would the flat side armor. It's the same general concept behind tank armor as far as I'm aware. Instead of shooting for the sloped armor where you're likely to bounce off, you'd aim for the weaker flat armor.**

 **Guest- I wouldn't go so far as to say that 117 won't _ever_ be getting shields, but he currently lacks them, just like all other SPARTANs at this point. As for the Council being on the defensive, they really don't have a choice. Due to the nature of the UNSC's FTL travel, they really have no idea where their colonies are, and likely won't find out until the end of the war.**

 **Now that that's out of the way, I hope you all enjoyed this markedly lengthier update. I look forward to reading all of your reviews.**


	3. Chapter 2: Spearhead

**Chapter 2: Spearhead**

 **December 26, 2531**

 **Castellus System**

"Good hits!" Cole smiled as he heard the Weapons Ensign call out. He watched as the heavy MAC guns of the forward Marathon and Valiant-Class vessels speared through the distant alien warships. The black backdrop of space was momentarily alight with flickering detonations and the white glow of MAC slugs. Much of the Council fleet's battle line had been obliterated by the alpha strike, and the rounds they had fired on them still had some time before they would strike the UNSC's vessels.

"Bring the fleet down by three hundred kilometers." Cole barked out. "Fire ARCHER missiles and prepare the SHIVA tubes."

"Hostile frigates jumping to lightspeed, gravitational anomalies three hundred thousand klicks off the fleet's starboard flank!" The Sensors Ensign shouted, adding to the cacophony of voices all trying to make themselves heard over one another.

"Longsword elements deploy Moray Mines on the anomalies!" Cole barked out, watching wing after wing of Longsword fighters break off from their escort duties and begin launching their explosive payloads towards the anomalies. "Fire remote detonation SHIVA packages into the anomalies."

Cole watched as the two dozen Turian frigates jumped straight into a five megaton SHIVA nuclear missile, overloading their shields and bringing them down. He couldn't help but smile as he watched dozens and dozens of Moray mines activate their onboard chemical drives and close in on the hostile frigates. Some were swatted from their vectors and destroyed by the enemy's point-defense, but their numbers were too great to be completely destroyed.

The mines did their job _very_ well, attaching to the hull plating of the frigates and detonating. Many of the vessels were all but shredded by the mine swarm, the few that managed to survive the onslaught of hunter-killer ordinance quickly dispatched by MAC rounds from the UNSC frigates.

"Heavy Cruiser elements push forward, focus fire on the hostile dreadnoughts." Cole ordered, swiping a hand across his command console to bring up his secure comms. " _Punic_ and _Thermopylae_ , recall all fighters and redeploy on the enemy's port-side flank."

"Punic acknowledges." Captain Meyers answered.

"Thermopylae moving." Captain Shepard answered.

Cole watched as the swarm of Longswords and Longbows returned to their carriers, followed by the familiar sight of a vessel's Slipspace drive lighting up. Just as the rift began to open, Cole barked out another order. "All vessels, fire MACs. Correct fire for hostile repositioning to their port-side flank."

Cole watched as his gamble paid off. He watched as the Council vessels turned to port, just as he had anticipated. He had spent hours mulling over the data that the reconnaissance mission had returned, and was hoping to lure them into this trap. In order to retreat if the UNSC engaged them from this position, they would need to turn to port to escape the system safely. Every other direction was obscured by asteroid fields, planets, or orbital stations. Far too dangerous to risk an emergency jump in any direction other than their port flank, if they had any sense about them.

Just as planned, Cole watched as the two Punic-Class Supercarriers emerged from the slipstream directly in front of the battered and bruised Council Fleet. Lacking the heavy firepower of their dreadnoughts, they were left with only cruisers and frigates against the largest combat vessels in the UNSC navy. Truth be told, he had wished that UNSC Slipspace drives were more accurate and reliable, but the two carriers had emerged close enough to their intended destination to have the desired effect. Only a few million kilometers away from their initial destination, quite an accurate jump by UNSC standards. The Council fleet was now facing down two powerhouse vessels, while the larger fleet's MAC rounds rained down on them from their flank.

The Council fleet, in a final act of desperation, fired their forward weapons on the two supercarriers, but Cole knew that the ten meters of Titanium-A armor would be more than enough to take sustained fire from the almost laughably weak Council mass drivers. The incoming MAC rounds from the remaining 103 combat-capable UNSC vessels quickly closed the distance, and the closer Punic-Class Supercarriers unleashed their own MAC rounds destined for the closest and largest vessels.

It was over in an instant, the 43 retreating Council vessels were utterly obliterated by the swarm of incoming MAC slugs, while the supercarriers sustained only superficial damage to their hull plating and heavy damage to the _Punic_ 's forward sensor array.

Cole's smile returned as the bridge of the _Everest_ broke out into cheers as the last hostile signature was erased from the system, leaving only UNSC fleet assets and the single Turian colony in the system. The colony was rather well-defended, given its proximity to Palaven, but he had a plan.

"Valiant-Class assets, begin escort duties for the Phoenix-class vessels." Cole spoke into his comms system. "Converge on the garden world from your starboard flank, Halcyon-Classes will move in from the port-side and provide assistance against hostile defense platforms."

"Rear Admiral Cooper acknowledges." The Captain of the _UNSC Valiant_ responded, breaking off from Battle Group X-Ray to converge on the Turian Colony.

Cole had learned quite a bit from the recovered data logs of General Arterius' vessel. Perhaps most importantly, he had learned that ONI's probe had been brought to this world for study and analysis. It didn't take long for Osman to deliver his secondary objective. He had his reservations about not simply MAC-striking the research complex, but intel suggested that the probe was kept at least a kilometer below ground, and ONI needed to be _absolutely_ certain that no data regarding this probe survived.

XXXXX

 **December 26, 2531**

 **New Alexandria, Reach**

Petty Officer First Class Williams stepped into the small pub that he tended to frequent, now that his assigned ship was undergoing refits on Reach. With the _Midsummer Night_ docked at Reach's orbital drydocks, he and the rest of the junior officers were left with little to do. They'd likely be on shore leave for the better part of the next month.

As he entered, the buzz of conversation wasn't the standard jovial kind that one would expect from a bar around this time of night. Everyone was more concerned with the recent release from the UNSC. ONI Section II had just gone public with information on Humanity's violent first contact with an alien species. Williams had a bit of a head start when it came to coming to terms with this. His captain, widely-respected Jacob Keyes, had shared the information with his crew mere days after Admiral Cole had engaged them, with clearance from HIGHCOM, of course. After all, he'd likely be a part of this war once the _Midsummer Night_ finished its refits.

The conversations in the bar seemed… hopeful. That was a welcome change for the officer. Reach had never been a hot-spot for insurrectionists, but the system certainly was. After the long and grueling Operation: TREBUCHET, much of the local populace still distrusted the UNSC, feeling that they would be better-off without the UNSC. It seemed that the realization that mankind wasn't alone in the universe was starting to shift that opinion. People seemed more supportive of the UNSC, knowing now that there was a _very_ real external threat to be defended against. Undoubtedly, some still distrusted the UNSC, but trust was slowly returning. Once conversation between a bartender and a patron caught Williams' attention above all the others.

"Word is Admiral Cole kicked those aliens out of their own system."

"Good riddance, I say. Attacking a human ship for trying to make contact?"

"I'm with 'ya. I just hope we don't see another four-decade war like we saw in the Insurrection."

The patron shrugged. "If Cole really did destroy all of those ships, I don't think this war'll even last two years."

XXXXX

 **December 27, 2531**

 **UNSC** ** _Pillar of Autumn_**

"Blue Team, ready up!" John-117, the Master Chief called out to the rest of his team. He had felt the shudder of MAC rounds firing, and knew that they'd be deployed planetside soon. After grabbing a BR55 Battle Rifle and M6 Magnum from their designated racks on the wall, he turned to look to his team of SPARTANs.

Linda-058 was sitting on an ammo crate, meticulously cleaning her SRS-99 Sniper Rifle. He had always known Linda to be a "lone-wolf" SPARTAN, and her quiet and reserved nature certainly accented this. Kelly grabbed her M7 SMG from a rack, along with a magnum. Try as she might to keep her incredible reflexes and reactions muted and restricted, Chief could still see her graceful and quick movements compared to the other SPARTANs. Frederic-104 grabbed his MA5 Assault Rifle and a Magnum. His stance was more… rigid and disciplined than the other SPARTANs in his team. He was certainly a competent commander, but in John's eyes, he took it a bit too far. John silently lamented his team being one-man short, with Kurt-051 on Reach for medical treatment after an operation on Psi Serpintis.

"ODSTs touched down, we're up." Fred nodded over to John, racking back the charging handle on his MA5.

Wordlessly, the four SPARTANs strode across the loading bay and stepped into the passenger compartment of a Pelican. The engines kicked on, the door hissed shut, and the dropship lifted off.

As the vessel passed through the hangar bay of _Pillar of Autumn_ , the scope of the devastation surrounding this world became very clear. Orbital defense platforms drifted through the vast silence of space, shattered and broken from the UNSC's assault. A few Paris-Class and Charon-Class Frigates joined the wreckage, their angular hulls drifting through space.

As the dropship thundered through the atmosphere, the sounds of descending SOEIV pods, the whistling of falling missiles, and the screaming descent of dozens of other Pelicans very suddenly became audible. Phoenix-Class Assault Ships were now directly overhead, dropping hellfire upon this alien world like an angered pantheon of gods. "You all know the mission, SPARTANs." The Captain of _Pillar of Autumn_ 's voice came over the Battlenet. "Destroy that probe."

"Understood, Captain." John acknowledged, feeling himself shift slightly as the Pelican jerked to the right to avoid incoming anti-air fire.

After a few minutes of the pilot deftly dodging incoming fire from the ground, relying on the swarm of Longsword fighters to keep the alien aircraft at bay, the Pelican came to a gentle hover over their intended LZ. The rear door slid open, and the light above the bay door shifted from a red to yellow before finally settling on green.

The instant the light was green, all four SPARTANs of Blue Team sprinted out of the Pelican, their armored boots landing on the coarse soil of the planet below. A few other Pelicans were offloading their passengers and cargo nearby. Everything from Marines to the hefty Scorpion main battle tank. In the distance, about three klicks from their current position, was a large complex, the occasional streak of fire spearing up towards the heavens in an attempt to down even one of the hundreds of UNSC aircraft descending upon them.

The Marines, already knowing their objective, began pushing towards the massive military complex in the distance. They were far from normal Marines, in all actuality. They were a mix of Marines Force Recon, ONISEC Ground Forces, ODSTs, and a few UNSC Army Recon teams. They would be launching an assault on the eastern end of the Turian military complex, drawing the defenders away and giving the SPARTANs the opening they needed to fulfill their mission.

John pulled his rifle from the magnetic strip on his back, the familiar reticle appearing on his HUD as he took the weapon in his hands. "Kelly, recon." John ordered, earning a curt nod from Kelly. Kelly darted off towards the complex's western end, her superb speed carrying her at just over fifty kilometers per hour. The rest of Blue Team trailed not far behind.

XXXXX

 **December 27, 2153**

 **Council Chambers, Citadel**

"Councilors!" The three Councilors were shaken slightly as the familiar hologram of Turian Primarch Fedorian appeared before them, his signal coming in from Palaven. "We've lost contact with Admiral Decius' fleet in Castellus, as well as all contact with the Digeris garrison."

"What?!" Sparatus half-shouted, causing both Tevos and Valern to flinch a bit. "They're already so close to Palaven? Have you sent any reconnaissance missions to Castellus?"

"We have sent two… neither have returned." Fedorian answered, grimly. "Based on Admiral Decuis' last report, the alien fleet was 140 vessels strong."

"Spirits…" Sparatus muttered, running a hand along his carapace.

"Sparatus, it's clear…" Tevos began, catching the Turian Councilor's attention. "We _need_ to end this war. We need to send the diplomatic envoy to the nearest fleet."

"And pray they don't simply destroy it…" Tevos found her sentence finished by Sparatus. "They've already punched through to the heart of Turian space and they're closing in on Palaven. What could we do to stop them?"

"Hope they understand diplomacy." Tevos answered, definitively.

"I hope they understand diplomacy, or learn very quickly." Valern added. "The Dalatrass recently informed me that we've detected those strange rifts deep in Salarian space. They seem to be closing in on Sur'Kesh."

"It's settled then…" Tevos let out an anxious sigh. "I'll dispatch Matriarch Benezia to oversee the diplomatic mission."

XXXXX

 **December 27, 2531**

 **Apex Facility, Digeris Surface**

Chief wrenched his combat knife out from under the Turian's spikey head fringe, letting the body fall limp against the metallic floor. Outside, he could hear the thundering fire of a Scorpion tank's main cannon, followed up by the rattling of a Warthog's chain gun. The task force outside was still keeping up their assault, and had succeeded in drawing the enemy to them in a rather spectacular fashion.

Opening the door to this facility had been easy enough. After all, any obstacle can be overcome with the proper application of plastic explosives. Kelly and Fred had funneled into the building alongside Chief, with Linda remaining on a nearby hilltop along with two other Force Recon sniper teams that would be providing overwatch for them.

Stepping over the corpse of the Turian guard, Chief shouldered his rifle and continued on his path through the facility. He could faintly hear the suppressed staccato of Kelly's M7 SMGs over the droning alarm that was blaring through the facility's metal halls. He felt the phantom feeling of that Turian's round pinging against the armored chestplate of his MJOLNIR Mk. IV armor. Despite the weapon's immense rate of fire, the projectiles were still about as effective as standard small arms were against the hulking powered armor.

Chief swept through the facility in the methodical manner befitting of a SPARTAN. He checked every room he passed, the few defending aliens that were unfortunate enough to cross his path soon finding themselves punctured by the 9.5mm rounds his Battle Rifle so reliably sent downrange. It didn't take very long for the SPARTAN to find his target.

As he stepped through a door at the bottom of a small flight of stairs, he found himself standing on the edge of a large hangar-like area filled with scientific equipment that he didn't quite care to decipher the function behind. All that mattered was he spotted a trio of Turians dressed in what he _assumed_ to be their standard clothing. They were chattering amongst themselves in their strange language, looking to be frantically trying to collect whatever they could from the various computer terminals in the area. In the middle of the room, he spotted the target: the fifteen meter-long probe that had been sent into deep space by ONI, parts of it disassembled and moved around in an attempt to better understand it.

It had only taken a moment for one of the three Turian researchers to spot the two meter-tall mass of green armor. Before the creature could even open a mandible to shout out to its companions, the SPARTAN raised his rifle in a blinding display of reflex and slotted a trio of rounds clean through its head. Only slightly taken aback by the fact that this was the first alien he had encountered that lacked their shielding, he switched his targets to the next one, then the next after that. In three quick bursts and less than a second having passed, all three of the aliens had been dispatched.

"Blue Team, asset secured." Chief spoke into the secure Battlenet connection he shared with the rest of his team. "Exfiltrate and fall back to minimum safe distance."

"Copy." Fred responded, clear and succinct.

Chief walked towards the probe, pulling the package from the magnetic strip at the small of his back. He placed the metallic cylinder down on the large platform that the probe lay on, sliding one end open and revealing a small keypad. He entered the activation code into the explosive in rapid-fire, then shut the capsule again. After confirming that the remote detonator was linked to his HUD, he turned and began making his way back out the way he came, leaving the 20 kiloton nuclear device behind.

Retracing his steps, Chief soon found himself outside again. The sounds of battle on the other end of the complex had died down as the Marines had begun pulling back to minimum safe distance. 175mm artillery shells continued to fall on the eastern end of the complex, keeping the Turian defenders pinned down long enough for the forces to fall back.

Not taking a moment longer than necessary, Chief broke out into a full sprint as he moved to regroup with Blue Team outside the complex near their initial LZ.

XXXXX

 **December 28, 2531**

 **UNSC** ** _Everest_** **, Castellus**

Cole looked down to the smoke-shrouded surface of Digeris with a feeling of pride welling up in his chest. ARCHER missiles continued to rain down on the planet's surface, and the occasional sub-caliber MAC round was fired into military installations or large concentrations of enemy forces. Not a moment later than expected, he saw a "mission complete" burst flood across his command console from Blue Team's leader, designation Sierra-117. Glancing up at the observation window, he saw an explosion visible even from geosynchronous orbit on the edge of one of the planet's many cities. The research complex dedicated to the ONI probe had been reduced to slag, and the SPARTANs were now on a Pelican bound for _Pillar of Autumn_.

Satisfied, he keyed his connection to the UNSC Battlenet, speaking into it once his AI had secured the connection. "Mission complete. All ground assets report back to your designated LZs for pickup." He swiped his hand across the holographic display, bringing up his connection with the fleet. "Halcyon group Echo, form a blockade pattern around the planet with your escort assets. Remaining fleet assets, defensive formation around the Supercarriers." As the pings of acknowledgement flooded his command console, Cole let out a hefty sigh. Finally, the battle here was won. All that was left to do was wait for the reinforcements from the Inner Colonies, then they would push on Palaven.

XXXXX

 **December 30, 2153**

 **Bridge of ARSV** ** _Fate's March,_** **Castellus System (FTL)**

Matriarch Benezia drew in a heavy breath as she awaited the impending return to sub-light speeds. Just as they had departed from the Citadel, news had come in that the alien fleets had arrived in Pranas, and were bearing down on Sur'Kesh. Every military advisor in Council space shared the same analysis of the situation, and it was looking grim. These aliens were moving to surround the Citadel before one final push on it.

The news of the sheer intensity of their attacks had quickly spread throughout Council space, and tensions were high on the homefront. As far as she was concerned, the fate of the entire galactic community rested on her ability to contact these aliens and broker a ceasefire, and that was a truly daunting task. Even through all of her centuries of life, nothing had managed to truly terrify her like these aliens had. In the matter of but a few months, they had secured a foothold a mere few light years from Palaven. From what she had seen, they were likely powerful enough to finally crack the legendary defenses of Palaven.

"Matriarch Benezia… we're dropping out of FTL." She was shaken back out of her musings as the frigate's navigations ensign called out to her.

She took a deep breath. She _really_ hoped that these aliens had translated at least one of the many languages throughout Council space. "Just like we were instructed. Make no attempt to conceal ourselves, broadcast our IFF and hail on all known frequencies."

"Right away." The Asari behind the communications console affirmed, just as the ship slid back into sub-light speeds. Benezia's heart nearly dropped into her chest as she saw the full scope of the system around her vessel.

As the IFF and their message flooded the space around them, she looked through the observation window and very nearly sent out the general order to surrender. A terrifyingly massive armada of vessels, all of which absolutely dwarfed her small frigate, were sitting in a holding pattern over the Turian colony of Digeris. The grey masses of armored plating, just as their previous engagements with them had confirmed, seemed to carry absolutely no Element Zero on board, and completely lacked shielding. The fleet seemed to be headed by a formation of fifteen positively massive super-dreadnoughts, stretching an intimidating 1.5 kilometers according to her VI's estimations. Four signatures seemed to be at the center of the massive formation of blocky grey starships, stretching over 4 kilometers according to her VI.

"Matriarch… they've accepted our hail." The comms ensign explained, an almost palpable tension in the air.

"Link up with them… bring them on-screen if possible." Benezia ordered, waiting. The entire bridge crew were all staring out at the 400-strong Armada that seemed poised to obliterate them if they so much as breathed wrong, an eerie silence settling over the bridge.

Benezia watched as an image appeared in front of her, seeming to come from one of the massive, four kilometer-long vessels near the center of the formation. A creature looking not unlike an Asari appeared before her, stunning her for a moment. It lacked the head fringe, having a short head of black hair in its place. Its skin was a pale tone with some pink, and appeared to be wearing an all-gray uniform with five stars lining either side of its collar. Its features looked more angular than an Asari's, and its voice was certainly deeper. Much to her internal thankfulness, the creatures words seemed to cross the immense distances of space as a dialect of the Turian language, likely translated by the ship's systems. "This is Fleet Admiral Michael Rollins of the United Nations Space Command, Acting Captain of the UNSC _Immortalized_ and presiding Admiral of Strike Group Alpha, state your intentions immediately or we will open fire."

Benezia was slightly taken-aback by the creature's stern words, but was far from surprised. She had fully expected to find herself speaking with a military officer… if she had managed to speak with anyone at all before a mass driver split her frigate in two. "I am Matriarch Benezia of the Asari Republics… I am here in the hopes of discussing a ceasefire."

Benezia watched as Rollins seemed to glance down, his shoulder moving a bit to indicate that he was using a computer of sorts. After a moment, he looked back up at her. "I am authorized to speak with you."

Benezia left out a sigh that she didn't realize she had kept pent-up. She very quickly became hopeful that she might see an end to this conflict.

XXXXX

 **December 30, 2531**

 **UNSC** ** _Point of No Return_** **Conference Room, Reach High Orbit**

Vice-Admiral Margaret Parangosky sat at the head of a large metallic conference table, joined by Rear Admiral Ned Rich, Captain Aaron Gibson, and Colonel Ackerson. The Office had been quite clear with her, this meeting was of the utmost importance. She very quickly realized _why_. Ackerson had the floor, and she found herself liking what he was proposing. Not that she'd ever make that known. "Given that Mankind is not alone, and we face a _very_ real threat from beyond our space… we could very quickly find ourselves standing off against this wider galactic community, regardless of any peace that comes from this conflict. Humanity needs guardians, and it's abundantly clear that our handful of SPARTANs will not be lasting us long."

"We've already lost a few during the later years of the Insurrection." Ackerson continued. "We can't depend on these few SPARTANs for long. For that reason… I'd like to propose a new generation of SPARTANs. Lower in costs, and lacking some of the… moral questionability of the current generation. The technology is there… we could take in consenting adults from all corners of service. We could make the units better with new technology. Make more of them. And make them cheaper."

Admiral Rich sighed, seeing the sensibility of a new, more cost-effective generation of elite supersoldiers. "Having a more… publically acceptable program could certainly raise morale, and very well might serve as a deterrent against potential Insurrectionist forces in the Outer Colonies."

"I agree." Parangosky nodded. "I'll clear the funding with ONI for a trial run. Colonel Ackerson, you will be overseeing this project. I'll procure the necessary personnel for your staff, and forward all dossiers on potential recruits to you."

"Understood, Admiral." Colonel Ackerson nodded. "If I may, who will I be working with?"

"Senior Chief Petty Officer Mendez, for one." Parangosky explained. "Despite the… shortcomings of the SPARTAN-II Program, he was quite effective in his training regimen. Potentially, you will be working with Doctor Catherine Halsey. Her knowledge from the previous program will prove invaluable to you."

"I'll secure your access to our more… sensitive discoveries." Parangosky continued. "Until then, report to CASTLE Base on Reach."

"Aye, Ma'am." Ackerson stood, and saluted.

 **A/N:**

 **Holy Christ, you guys jumped on this story. Thank you all so much :D.**

 **Now, to answer some questions pre-emptively. This SPARTAN-III Program will be… more akin to the SPARTAN IV Program in the sense that it will be taking consenting adults into its ranks. As for how they were able to make this transition so quickly… let's just say that in the years of peace the UNSC has had in the absence of the Human-Covenant War has allowed the UNSC to make some** ** _significant_** **discoveries.**

 **Now, review response time!:**

 **iZuikaku- I'm not too sure on the idea of minor crossovers. It's difficult enough to manage a crossover between two of the biggest sci-fi franchises in recent history. Adding more would only add to the issues. That's not to say there won't be references and stuff, though.**

 **Minecraft93- Believe me, I have been considering the** ** _Infinity_** **.**

 **Dawnwatch- Someone say** ** _Pillar of Autumn_** **? As for the ME guns, they use Thermal Clips. I never did quite understand how every gun in the galaxy seemed to go from the heat sink-based system to thermal clips in the span of two years, so I've just made every gun a thermal clip weapon.**

 **Anon- Generally, a Marathon would outlast a Halcyon in a straight-up fleet engagement. The primary reason the** ** _Autumn_** **survived the crash-landing on Installation 04 was because it was almost its own class of ship by that point. It had undergone quite a bit of refitting on Reach before it made the blind jump out to the Ring, and the late/post-war Autumn-Class cruiser was directly based on the updated** ** _Pillar of Autumn_** **.**

 **Guest- I'm kinda of the opinion that timeline infodumps are a bit counterintuitive for my writing style. Don't worry, what's happened over the years the War should have been taking place will be explained, all in due time.**

 **Lanzador- I'd be remiss if I didn't include the HRUNTING/YGGDRASIL Mk. 1. That thing was dope. As for the** ** _Autumn_** **'s upgrades… soon(tm). The reason I had Fleet Admiral Harper take Cole into consideration was mostly due to what I would consider to be common sense. Even if you outranked someone in a battle, you'd likely listen to their tactical advice if they had already won against them before. If you had any sense, that is. And it'd take quite a bit of sense to make it to Fleet Admiral in the UNSC, especially during "peacetime".**

 **Cjusa1234- RBOD soon, my dude.**

 **Clay237- I** ** _really_** **like N.O.V.A. Bombs ;).**

 **\- As far as I know, I haven't written any DxD/Harry Potter stories. Then again, I may have written something while I was** ** _heavily_** **intoxicated, so it's certainly a possibility. And don't worry, Forerunner stuff soon.**

 **Mf0012- I've settled on using Halopedia and Halo Nation, and if anything conflicts I'll just use the more sensible of the two. No sense in excluding a source if there's no conflicts.**

 **Pmoore2025- Hope the chapter answered that first question. As for the UNSC's xenophobia, we'll just have to wait and see.**

 **KorPA- A breach of a service vessel's E-War firewalls would indeed be a Casus Belli. That part was told from the Turian perspective, and showed what they** ** _thought_** **was happening.**

 **Deadtrooper- More Council POV, coming right up.**

 **Diesec- Thanks, my dude. I'm glad you're liking it.**

 **Nipplegunz (best name so far, tbh)- The Insurrection is still "happening" in the loosest sense of the word. It's kinda like how there were still Innies during the Human-Covenant War, but their activities were just so negligible that the UNSC elected to either ignore it or contain it, only ever dispatching forces to combat them directly on rare occasions. Operation: TREBUCHET did eventually end in a UNSC victory, so much of the larger United Rebel Front has been destroyed. There are still some minor cells operating, of course, but they're not a major threat to the UEG anymore.**

 **Appolonir- Consider it done. :D**

 **Holyknight5- Oh, the First Contact War will indeed shake the Council to its very core, and there will be** ** _very_** **real ramifications (both politically and socially) to the realization that their technology has effectively stagnated, while a race that should be a 2** **nd** **rate power at best (given how little time they've been spacefaring, compared to the Asari) has almost completely overtaken them in every field of science.**

 **ABuzzman- Holy shit dude, thanks. I really appreciate the praise.**

 **Rptokonic- Thanks, man. I couldn't find any definitive number for Eezo drive FTL speeds on the ME wikis or in the in-game Codex. I'll probably just settle on 10 ly/day for the larger ships and 15 for the smaller ones, kinda like how Slipspace travel is quicker (sometimes, thanks Causal Reconciliation) for smaller, faster vessels.**

 **Vandenbz- Chief-Spectre curbstomp soon, my dude. For now, he's fixing problems for ONI, like always. And there** ** _will_** **be roasts courtesy of UEG ambassadors very soon.**

 **Red qim- I'm still considering integrating ME tech into the UNSC's. Right now, I'm at most considering eezo-based small arms for now.**

 **Dutchmaniac- Most of their tech is around Halo Wars-grade, yeah. Their technology will improve at a decent rate. Not quite leaping to the** ** _Infinity_** **, but it'll make significant strides now that ONI can research in relative peace.**

 **Everyone else- Thank you all for the support, I love all of you. Honestly, at the rate this story's blowing up, I don't know how long I'll be able to keep doing these review responses before the responses are longer than the damn chapter.**

 **As always, I love all of you guys for the follows, favs, and reviews you send my way. Let me know what you think of this chapter.**

 **-TallYapflip**


	4. Chapter 3: Peace?

**Chapter 3: Peace?**

 **January 14, 2154**

 **Citadel, Presidium (Council Chambers)**

Tevos gazed out to the stars of the Widow Nebula, some of the familiar specks of light obscured by the UNSC fleet that had escorted their diplomat to the Citadel. From what she had heard, this fleet was hardly large for them. She had no names to attach to these alien vessels, but there were only seven of them, and none of them were the massive super-dreadnoughts that had been so devastating in the short but bloody conflict between these "Humans" and the Council. From the miniscule information that the STG and Spectres had managed to uncover on these aliens, mostly from prisoners taken from the rare ground victory the Council saw during the war, these ships were frigates under Human classifications. She couldn't help but scoff, some of these frigates were as large as a cruiser by her standards, and their cruisers were larger than a dreadnought.

The small military escort that brought the Human diplomat with it had arrived at the Citadel just a few moments ago, emerging from the angry maw of those rifts she had heard so much about. It almost looked like time and space themselves spat these aliens out. Of the seven ships that had arrived, only six of them had ever been spotted in combat before. The six she was familiar with were very… blocky. They were just under 500 meters, according to the sensor readings that had filtered into the Council Chambers. The seventh vessel truly stood out among the others.

It was tiny by comparison to the other ships. It was less than 100 meters in length, according to the Citadel's vast sensor array. It had no known weapons, and had a very miniscule power output compared to the others. If she had to guess, this was the ship that brought the ambassadors. Most would overlook this tiny detail, but its significance was not lost on Tevos. She was a veteran diplomat, and she knew that this told wonders of their culture. They were not as militaristic as the Council had originally feared. They still seemed to have a concept of diplomacy if they had brought their diplomats in a civilian ship.

"Councilor Tevos…" Tevos was shaken out of her inner thoughts by her aide, a young Asari with a violet tint to her skin. "The smaller Human ship has sent a small transport to the Citadel, it will be here in a few moments."

Tevos gave a tense smile. "Good… thank you Kiala." Her eyes turned back to the fleet outside for a moment. The Citadel Defense Fleet was still on high-alert, but their weapons remained inert. They had assumed a defensive formation around the Citadel, and were fully prepared to open fire on the Human ships if necessary. She truly hoped that it wouldn't come to that.

After a short sigh to compose herself, Tevos turned and headed towards the Presidium Tower's central chambers, where the three Councilors stood to address the galactic community. Now, instead of granting Spectre status or mediating in trade disputes, they would be attempting to end a war before it engulfed the galaxy.

After traversing the halls of the Presidium, she found herself standing behind her podium. Sparatus to her right and Valern to her left. The Turian looked tense, almost fearful of what he would see walk up the staircase to the Council. The Salarian had a look of practiced indifference on his face, but Tevos could tell that he was just as tense as Sparatus. Not even a moment after her arrival at the podium, the small computer display built into it pinged, signaling the arrival of the Human ambassador in the Presidium Hangar.

Hundreds of people from all species lined the balconies on either end of the Council, kept a few feet away from the railing by C-SEC Guards. Drones floated over the Presidium, awaiting the arrival of the aliens that had stirred up so much in so little time.

After a few tense minutes, she heard the pneumatic hissing of a door on the left-hand side of the Presidium, and saw a pair of C-SEC guards walk towards the Council. Just a few feet behind them, was a group of three Humans. Tevos had seen pictures of these Humans, and she was still very much unnerved by their uncanny similarity to Asari. She knew that they were indeed sexually dimorphic, unlike her own race, but it was still quite interesting. The fact that two species could evolve to look so similar, despite hailing from different worlds, was truly awe-inspiring.

She took a moment to examine the three Humans that were being escorted by the C-SEC officers. One seemed to stand before the others, so she elected to focus her attention on him first. He was wearing a very well-tailored set of clothing, likely formalwear, and was an obvious male of the species. He had a pin on the lapel of his coat that Tevos couldn't quite make out, but she assumed him to be a politician of sorts.

Behind him and to his right was another man. He was, without a doubt, a military officer. His uniform was expertly maintained, but its simplicity was rather surprising to Tevos. It appeared to be little more than a grey-and-black tunic and pants with what appeared to be rank insignias on the shoulders and collar. This officer in particular had _numerous_ medals on the left side of his chest. On the right side of his chest, he seemed to have a metallic plate pinned to his tunic, likely bearing his name if the intelligence regarding these aliens was at all correct. She couldn't quite make it out from this distance, but he must be a rather high-ranking officer if he was present here. She made a special note of the empty holster at his hip.

Behind the suited man and to his left was a female of the species. She was obviously a soldier of sorts, but her armor was nothing short of incredible. It _almost_ looked like a Hardsuit, but it seemed to be made up of multiple layers. There was a form-fitting black undersuit, then the heavy armored plates and helmet that made up the actual armor part. Her face was hidden behind a gold visor, and there was no visible rank or name on her person. The only thing that _could_ be seen as an indication of _who_ she was would be a single letter and three numbers on her chest-plate: "A-130". She stood a full head-and-shoulders taller than the other Humans with her, and would probably stand at eye-level or taller than a Turian. She was carrying some sort of rifle on her back, and a pistol seemed to be locked to her thigh, likely though a magnetic strip like you could find on the more-advanced Hardsuits in Council Space.

The entire Presidium had fallen silent as the three Humans were led before the Council by the C-SEC officers, who then stepped away and stood at the top of the staircase. The soldier and the officer stood at rigid attention, while the politician clasped his hands behind his back. "Thank you for coming, mister…?" Tevos began, breaking the silence that had overtaken the Presidium.

"Alexander Yevgeny." The politician explained, bowing his head slightly. "Elected President of the Unified Earth Government." Tevos was slightly surprised to hear that these Humans were democratic, much less willing to send their elected leader to oversee these negotiations directly. "With me I have Vice-Admiral Preston Jeremiah Cole, commander of Battle Group X-Ray, and Senior Chief Petty Officer Alice: UNSC Special Forces operator."

Tevos truly had no idea why this soldier in particular was brought to the Citadel, but she settled on her being the President's surprisingly small security detail. "I am Councilor Tevos, representing the Asari Republics. This is Councilor Sparatus and Councilor Valern, representing the Turian Hierarchy and Salarian Union, respectively." Tevos was surprised by the courtesy the Human was showing to the Council. He gave all three of the Councilors a respectful nod as she identified them. "Now… let us begin. What will it take to end this conflict?"

"Simple…" The President began, looking to all three of the Councilors in kind. Tevos was half-expecting to hear something along the lines of an unconditional surrender, but what she found herself listening to shocked her. "The return of any Human prisoners of war, their equipment, and any of our technology you have seized in the fighting."

Tevos looked to the other Councilors, and all of them looked well and truly taken aback. The thought that such a simple request could end this war before it worsened was a pleasant surprise to all parties involved. "A fair enough request, so long as our prisoners and equipment are given the same courtesy."

"Of course." The President nodded. "And as a… gesture of good faith, any and all seized worlds, with the exception of Aephus, will be returned to the Council."

"Why Aephus in particular?" Sparatus asked, almost accusatorially.

"Matters of UNSC operational security." The President responded. "I understand that these Mass Relays are an important part of galactic travel, and your vessels will be free to pass through the Aephus Relay. The UEG Senate has begun voting on allowing Council races to settle on Aephus, should our request be permitted."

"You'd ask us to secede our territory to you?" Sparatus asked, almost offended.

"Hardly a high price to pay for peace, Councilor." The President turned to look to Sparatus. "Especially after your General's… unwarranted aggression against our people."

"General Arterius gave the general order to open fire after your artificial intelligence attacked our ship's firewalls." Sparatus accused, earning a hollow chuckle from the President.

Before Sparatus could truly start fuming, the President held a hand out towards Alice. "Alice… if you wouldn't mind?"

"Of course, sir." She nodded, reaching up to the back of her helmet and removing a small card-like chip from it. She handed the small chip over to the President, who held it in the palm of his right hand.

"Serina, if you'd be so kind as to explain what _actually_ happened."

The Councilors all watched as a small hologram of a Human woman appeared in the President's hand. It was blue-tinted, and the small A.I. avatar seemed to stand with an air of confidence. "Of course, Mister President." The A.I. affirmed, nodding. A chill ran the length of Tevos' spine as the A.I. turned to look at her in particular for a moment. The sheer thought of keeping an A.I. in your head, terrified her. "After the initial engagement between Battle Group X-Ray and the Aephus Defense Fleet, I was personally tasked with understanding General Arterius' flagship. After recovering what data we could from the _Trailblazer_ 's black box, jettisoned into space following its destruction, I compared the data."

"The UNSC _Trailblazer_ is a small vessel originally meant to be moth-balled, sold for parts." Serina continued. "The UNSC elected instead to use it for survey operations. As such, the vessel was lacking many of the communications suites that active warships carry. The vessel's attached artificial intelligence attempted every method of contact available to him… all failed but one."

Serina's avatar faded away, replaced by a technical readout. There were hundreds of lines of code, expanded to make the text visible to the Council. "These errors were taken from the exact moment the A.I. attempted contact with the defense fleet. All four hundred failure states show that all standard methods of communication that the _Trailblazer_ was capable of failed to establish a working connection. Seeing only one option remaining, he took the chance to establish a one-way connection to your ship's communications systems that he would use to upload the UNSC's First Contact Packet."

"After comparing it with the black box aboard General Arterius' flagship, I came to understand that it was not the General who noticed this supposed breach of firewalls. It was instead the communications officer aboard the vessel. Due to the nature of the _Trailblazer_ 's short connection, only she would have noticed this discrepancy. It's quite likely that due to your… rather irrational fear of artificial intelligence, she viewed this as a threat and notified the General. In short… he jumped the gun, so to speak. Instead of checking to see if this was an attack on all ship systems, he simply gave the order to fire, leading to the death of one hundred thirty four UNSC servicemen and women."

"Yet it was your kind that escalated a botched first contact to a full-scale war." Sparatus declared.

"UNSC High Command was operating under the assumption that General Arterius received this First Contact Packet, yet gave the order to fire anyways." The President answered, turning to Sparatus. "By the time we found the _Trailblazer_ 's black box and realized the misunderstanding, it was too late. Admiral Cole's fleet was already engaged in Castellus and on the surface of the colony."

"Is this meant to excuse your detonation of a nuclear weapon on Digeris' surface?" Sparatus asked, venom dripping from his words. That earned a few murmurs from the crowd.

"No, that's a separate matter entirely." The President answered. "This is meant to explain that there were mistakes on both sides of this, and neither of us shoulder this blame alone. I've already begun making the… necessary adjustments to the structure of High Command with the approval of the Senate."

"And the nuclear warhead?" Sparatus asked, gritting his mandibles.

"Admiral Cole carried out his orders from HIGHCOM to destroy the facility dedicated to researching our survey probe." The President explained. "His mission was to destroy the probe, as well as all research materials related to it. This has been standard UNSC operational procedure for decades, and High Command gave the order due to the very real threat of this probe containing navigational data on our colonies."

"Did it?" Tevos asked. "Contain navigational data, I mean."

"Yes…" The President nodded. "The location of one of our colonies: Harvest. It was dispatched from this colony." After a short sigh, the President continued. "I truly regret that first contact led to conflict, and you have my sincerest apologies for the failings of diplomacy. As a gesture of good faith, the UEG is happy to assist in reparations, as well as terraforming should it be necessary."

"Thank you, Mister President… we will take your offer into consideration." Tevos gave a surprised smile.

"Are there any further… stipulations for peace that you'd like to discuss?" The President asked.

Tevos glanced over to Sparatus and Valern, who both seemed to relent with a sigh. "There is one…" Tevos began. "The Council would like to extend the offer of membership to the Unified Earth Government as an Associate Species."

"I assume that this would include the UEG signing into the Treaty of Farixen and abide by Council law?" The President asked, already knowing the answer.

"Yes." Tevos nodded.

"I'm afraid that will not be possible, then." The President shook his head. "Under the Treaty of Farixen, a vast majority of the UNSC Navy's cruiser and carrier fleet would have to be mothballed and scrapped, limiting our defenses. Similarly, in regards to A.I., the UEG would be obligated under your laws to forego any research into artificial intelligence, which has become an integral part of our society. Cities all across Human Space would be left without the A.I. that keep their infrastructure running properly, and the UNSC Navy would lose the electronic warfare defenses that Smart A.I. provide. Not to mention that your laws regarding genetic and biomechanical engineering would make me, as well as every member of the UNSC Military outlaws, as all UNSC servicemen receive genetic and cybernetic augmentation to a certain degree."

"You genetically modify your soldiers?" Sparatus asked, sounding disgusted.

"Our FTL travel mandates that our soldiers are kept in cryostasis for long-distance jumps between systems." The President explained. "In order to make this process easier, military personnel are given limited genetic augmentation. All commissioned officers of the UNSC also receive neural implants, allowing us to directly interface with computer systems. By joining the Council as an associate race, mankind would have to declare well-over half of its population illegal, and what would you have me do then? Round up veterans with genetic modifications and shoot them? Imprison them? Extradite billions to the Citadel to face trial for something they had no say in? All augmentation in the UNSC military and outside the military is strictly voluntary under the Mortal Dictata Act, and Humanity is determined by behavior, outward appearance, or form."

After a moment of consideration, Tevos turned to Sparatus. "Perhaps an… exception could be made? It is certainly far too much to ask of a species to completely forego their culture for ours, and it is not our place to ask this. We could create a new form of connection to the Council. An Observant Power of sorts."

"Tevos, you cannot be serious…" Sparatus sighed.

"Our laws were drafted under the assumption that Mass Effect technology was the only logical progression of technology." Tevos explained. "As you can see, this is not the case. What right do we have to ask these Humans to abide by laws that would cause them to regress, technologically and socially?" Before Sparatus could answer, she continued. "We don't have that right."

"I agree, Tevos." Valern nodded.

Sparatus sighed. "Will you be sharing your technology, President Yevgeny?"

"No. Not in regards to our military technology, at the very least." The President admitted.

"Why not?" Sparatus asked, mandible flared.

"I would think the Turians would understand the dangers of giving a species technology before they are culturally and socially ready for it." The President retorted.

"This is hardly a concern for us to be addressing now." Tevos intervened before this spiraled into an argument between Sparatus and the President. "Mister President, the Council has come to an agreement. We will make an exception and allow Humanity to remain exempt from the Treaty of Farixen, as well as our laws regarding biological, genetic, and cybernetic augmentation. The only stipulations Humanity would be required to abide by would be our Sentient Rights Charter, the diplomatic proceedings of the Citadel, and allow Council fleets to periodically patrol regions of your space containing Mass Relays."

The President sighed. He truthfully was not expecting the Council to make an offer like this. "This is outside the scope of my power. It will have to be left up to a Senate vote."

"I understand." Tevos nodded. "With that out of the way, I am interested in your species. How many colonies have you founded? Where is your homeworld? What is it like?"

The President took a breath, knowing full well that the Council would be stunned by his next few sentences. "The UEG has established over eight hundred colonies, which are divided up into Inner and Outer Colonies." He saw Sparatus' mandibles widen at that. "The Human population has just reached forty billion last year."

Continuing, he began to elaborate on Earth. "Our species comes from Earth, a garden world in the Orion Arm of the galaxy. The UEG Senate and Colonial Administration Authority are housed there, while the UNSC's High Command is housed on Reach, our second-largest colony world."

"You've found eight hundred garden worlds?" Tevos asked, amazed

"Not exactly…" The President explained. "Many of our colonies are on small moons for mining operations, or on worlds still undergoing terraforming procedures."

"Spirits…" Sparatus muttered. "How long has your species been spacefaring?"

"The first Humans set foot on our moon just under six hundred years ago." The President explained.

"Impressive…" Tevos admitted. "Now, I understand that you've already agreed to the Ceasefire, but would you be willing to sign a preliminary peace treaty without joining the Council as an Observant Power, Simply for the sake of lessening the tensions?"

"Of course." The President nodded.

XXXXX

 **January 28, 2532**

 **Presidium Tower, Citadel**

The President stepped up to address the Council. He was preparing to unveil the Senate's decision on joining the Council as an Observer, and the crowd of reporters and civilians was even larger as a result. "Mister President…" Tevos began. "Has your Senate come to a decision?"

"They have…" He nodded, keying the small datapad he held in his hand, bringing up the vote. "With a vote of 1137 to 1083, the Senate of the Unified Earth Government has agreed to join the Council as an Observer." Saddened that he was forced to cut off the murmurs and soft applause that had washed over the crowd, he continued. "So long as two prerequisites are met by the Council."

"This being?" Tevos asked, surprised to see that Humanity had agreed to join the Council.

"The Senate requests that matters of UEG Colonial Security be left to the UNSC. Meaning, the UNSC retains its ability to answer to threats to Human space as they see fit, and the Council respect our sovereignty in that regard."

After looking to Valern and Sparatus, both nodding in response, she responded. "That seems a fair enough request. And the second?"

"The UEG be notified of any archeological discoveries regarding the civilizations that came before us, and be allowed to send our own research teams to assist in their understanding. Of course, the UEG will offer the same courtesy so long as the sharing of this discovery does not directly put the safety of the UEG and its citizens at risk."

Glancing to Sparatus and Valern again, both nodded. "Agreeable." Tevos smiled. "Is that all?"

"Indeed, Councilor." The President nodded.

"Then, I am happy to welcome Humanity to the galactic community." Tevos' smile broadened. "We've already set aside space on the Presidium for an embassy, and your people will be free to travel to the Citadel, and all corners of Council Space pending further negotiations."

XXXXX

 **February 9, 2532**

 **CASTLE Base, Reach**

Admiral Cole stepped out of the Pelican that had ferried him planetside, finding himself standing in the center of a massive research complex under the control of ONI. With his promotion to Fleet Admiral, and the news that the Senate Armed Services Committee was considering him for the position of Chief of Naval Operations, the Office had requested his presence here. For what, he truly had no idea.

After arriving, a pair of scientists wearing the ONI emblem on their shoulders led him deep into the facility, where he found himself standing in a conference room with a group of people that he never expected to be in the same room together. There was Admiral Parangosky at the head of the conference table, Colonel Ackerson off to her right and staring down at a datapad, and Doctor Catherine Halsey standing to her left, reading over a veritable stream of data on her own datapad. On the end of the table opposite Parangosky, there was Admiral Rich, watching the almost palpable tension in the conference room.

"Thank you for coming, Admiral Cole." Parangosky said, looking up from the table. "With your recent promotion, it's time to bring you up to speed."

"Of course, Admiral." Cole nodded, stepping over and standing beside Admiral Rich.

"Now…" Parangosky sighed, swiping a hand across the holographic interface on her side of the conference table, causing a projection to appear in the center of the table. It showed a world that Cole was unfamiliar with, labeled as 'Onyx'. "This is Onyx, a world that officially does not exist. Beneath its surface is, arguably, the most important discovery in all of Human history."

Cole watched as the hologram seemed to peel the crust layer away from the planet, showing a metallic shell several thousand kilometers in diameter. Frankly, he couldn't believe it. "You are familiar with the Forerunners, yes?" Parangosky asked, looking to Cole, who simply nodded. "The crust of Onyx experiences no tectonic shifting, due to the planet's nature. It is not a natural stellar formation… rather, it is a latticework of Forerunner drones that ONI has designated 'Sentinels'. Trillions of them."

Cole continued to listen as Parangosky ran through her explanation. "These drones appear dormant, awaiting an activation signal of some kind. A recent expedition into the core of this world has unearthed a rather important find: a map room." Parangosky's hand swiped over the interface again, peeling away another layer of the planet's projection. This showed a massive antechamber with a single red point in the center. "This is a Slipspace rift, precisely twenty three centimeters in diameter. From what we've gathered from Forerunner databanks on Onyx's surface, this rift leads to what they referred to as a 'shield world', a massive micro-dyson sphere contained in the Slipstream. We believe that we might very well be able to open this rift with our technology, ushering in an unthinkable leap in Human technological achievement."

"You said we accessed these databanks?" Cole asked, slightly confused. "How?"

"Forerunner relics seem to respond to Human interaction incredibly well. It seems that with a simple touch, we can unlock almost all of their systems." Parangosky explained. "Almost as if this technology was left for us to discover. In large part, we have you to thank for this discovery, Admiral Cole." That certainly got his attention. "ONI uncovered Forerunner relics on Aephus, leading us directly to Onyx's true nature. You may have just propelled mankind to the next stage in our technological evolution."

Cole let out a sigh. Frankly, this was all almost too much to take in at once. As a Vice-Admiral, he had access to some information regarding the Forerunners, but this was beyond the scope of anything he had ever seen. The sheer thought that this technology had laid dormant in UNSC space for the better part of the past forty years was… terrifying. "What do you need from me?" Cole asked, composing himself.

"Simply put?" Parangosky began, sighing. "ONI will be requisitioning your Battle Group's Punic-Class Supercarrier, the UNSC _Thermopylae,_ and will be using its Slipspace drive to force this rift open. This is not, however, the only reason you were requested here." Parangosky turned to Halsey. "Doctor?"

Halsey turned to Admiral Cole, a look of indifference on her face. "Admiral, ONI has green-lit a new generation of SPARTANs. I would like to personally screen any servicemen in your Battle Group that show… potential, aged between eighteen and twenty."

"Consider permission granted, Doctor." Cole nodded.

XXXXX

 **March 15, 2532**

 **Reach, FLEETCOM Complex**

"Was the integration successful?" Ackerson asked, stepping through the door of the MJOLNIR laboratories. Various suits of the advanced powered armor were suspended by mechanical arms, various tools and equipment littering rolling carts throughout the lab.

"Yes, Colonel." Doctor Bethany Ayden affirmed with a quick nod. "We've managed to create a stopgap measure to provide the MJOLNIR armor with kinetic barriers equal in strength to standard Turian Military Pattern barriers. It should hold the Program over until we manage to replicate the more… advanced shielding methods Doctor Halsey described."

"Excellent." Ackerson allowed himself a small smirk. The UNSC had access to a _very_ miniscule amount of Element Zero that was recovered from Aephus, and he was glad to see that it was being put to good use. Of course, with potential materials trade with the Council, it would not be long before Humanity had access to a larger pool of this new resource. It would likely be years before the standard ground forces or even ships of the UNSC found themselves equipped with these barriers, but his primary concern was the SPARTAN program. "And the manufacturing process?"

"MJOLNIR is still, by far, one of the largest investments we could make for an individual soldier, but the costs have been reduced by this new element. The metamaterial engineering capabilities of this 'Element Zero' are immense, and we've only just scratched the surface." Ayden answered. "In short, we've managed to reduce costs and production times by a significant margin. We've already begun manufacturing on the twenty five suits you requested for the Program's trial run."

"Good… keep up the good work, Doctor." Ackerson smiled, allowing her to return to her work. As he turned his attention to his datapad, writing up an update for Admiral Parangosky, he saw a message from Halsey blink a notification on his screen. Curious, he tapped the notification and opened the message.

Contained within, he saw the list of names that he had been waiting for. There were fifty prospects that Halsey had found, each of them far exceeding their comrades in both physical test scores and their cognitive and psychological testing. Unsurprisingly, a vast majority of the prospects were pulled from the ranks of the ODSTs. At the very bottom of the list was the notably shorter roster of the SPARTAN-IIs that had been selected to train the next generation.

The list was short and simple, made up of some of the best that Halsey's original program had produced: Alice-130, Douglas-042, Jerome-092, Kurt-051, and Adrianna-111. He had is reservations about working with SPARTAN-IIs, but he was directly ordered by Parangosky to submit to Halsey's suggestions in this matter. The last thing he would ever consider would be to go against the wishes of CINCONI… that was tantamount to both figurative and literal suicide.

 **March 16, 2154**

 **Sur'Kesh, STG Headquarters**

Professor Kin Sikesh pored over the data again and again. His research and development division with the Special Tasks Group had specifically been assigned this position by the Dalatrass, and they had made virtually no headway. They were tasked with better-understanding the method by which the Humans traversed the stars, and were given access to sensor data taken from ships of the line, as well as the Citadel, in order to do so. Simply put, the STG had hit a dead end.

The sheer amount of power that it would take to seemingly tear a hole in space and time itself was immense, and these Human vessels seemed to have a power output several times that of even the largest Council vessels. From where he was standing, it would take a complete technological reset for the Council to ever _truly_ understand the Humans' method of FTL travel. Sure, it was slower, but they didn't seem to rely on constant refueling for long-distance jumps. Their ships could seemingly just point themselves in the general direction of their destination, tear a hole in the very fabric of the universe, and arrive there some time later. To the untrained eye, it would seem to be little more than magic, but Sikesh knew better.

He knew damn well that in order to understand even the most basic aspects of this method of travel, they would not only need access to functional models of this technology, but the infrastructure to power those models. At best, they might be able to power a weak Human FTL drive… _might_. Element Zero Cores simply did not have the power output to meet the basic requirements for this method of FTL, and likely never would even if they had somehow managed to avoid the issue of entropy. To achieve what the Humans had, it would require a near-complete technological reset and possibly centuries of research. By that point, the Humans would likely advance to the point of near-godhood.

Hell, even if by some miracle STG managed to recover a working model of this FTL drive, it would likely not end well. The Humans had demonstrated rather clearly that they were willing to go to _any_ length to keep their technology a closely-guarded secret. They were willing to vaporize a Turian research facility to keep navigational data out of their hands. He could only imagine the lengths the Humans would go to if something like an FTL drive was stolen.

Truthfully, from his perspective, the best chance the Council had at getting their hands on this technology was to keep the Humans close, and convince them to help develop it. It was wishful thinking, given the botched first contact, but it was the closest thing they had to a fighting chance of ever matching the UNSC's capabilities.

He had been following the news ever since the First Contact War had broken out, and it had certainly shaken things up in the Council. There were rumblings from the Turians that they would be summarily ignoring the Treaty of Farixen, and there were confirmed reports that the Hierarchy had been shaken up quite vigorously. The small sect of Turian society that wished to bring about a shift in doctrine away from the regimented, predictable patterns they had set themselves in were now finding themselves heard. The Salarian Union had already begun investing more into their shipbuilding capabilities, as well as bolstering STG's funding. The Asari had even begun ramping up the training of Asari Commandos, as well as their own shipyards and dreadnought fleet. He had no doubt that these Humans, now in the presence of a greater galactic community, would be doing the same. They were still a rogue element, much of their potential was an unknown. If there was one thing that the STG had learned to be _very_ cautious around, it was the unknown.

And there was one unknown that stood out among all of the others when it came to these Humans: Just why they had, even by the loosest sense of the word, "joined" the Council. They could have easily negotiated complete independence, and possibly even forced a complete surrender from the Council if they continued the war. Yet, instead, they chose to settle on a compromise, joining the Council as an Observer so long as they could continue AI research, genetic and cybernetic augmentation, and maintain a navy independent of the Treaty of Farixen. None of it made sense.

Sighing, Sikesh turned his attention back to the data on his terminal, mentally steeling himself to beat his head against the figurative wall as he tried to unravel the mysteries of these newcomers.

 **A/N:**

 **Alright, it's 3 A.M. and I've been binge-writing for this lately. This is probably the most fun I've had writing a fic in quite some time. Halo really is a** ** _goldmine_** **for potential stories and characters. Really makes you wonder why nobody's made a movie in the Halo universe (We almost had a Neil Blomkamp Halo film, and that would have been fantastic).**

 **And yeah, I made a bit of a chronological error in the Prologue. It should be fixed now. (When you Slipspace so hard that your fleet accidentally goes back in time).**

 **Review time (I'm focusing on the questions for this one. Sweet Jesus, the amount of reviews on these chapters is getting hard to keep up with):**

 **Jmaster9999- There will be** ** _many_** **secret projects, my dude. There's a reason ONI plays such a massive role in this story.**

 **Everyone who didn't want the UNSC to become an Associate to the Council- I understand that many of you do not wish for the UNSC to become a member of the Council, which is precisely why I did** ** _not_** **do this. As an Observer Power, the UNSC is only obligated to follow the most** ** _basic_** **of Council law. Things like basic Sentient rights, respecting the Council's diplomatic process, all that good stuff. The only real concession that the UNSC made was allowing the Council to patrol a** ** _single_** **system within their space, due to it containing a Mass Relay. The UNSC will retain** ** _all_** **of its sovereignty and independence from the Council in practice. This would be an awfully short story if all I did was have the UNSC vaporize the Citadel and blitz through the rest of the galaxy, reducing every colony they found to rubble from orbit.**

 **Lord Halcyon- I'll say this much: I greatly prefer Bungie's original vision for the Halo universe to 343's.**

 **Helyanweh- I did consider removing the Forerunners from the story, but there's a small issue with that in my opinion. The Forerunners and their influence over Humanity are an integral part of the Halo universe. Hell, it was the driving force behind almost all of the games to a certain degree. From Guilty Spark recognizing Chief as Bornstellar, all the way to the terminal entries showing Humanity's true origins. In short, it's not Halo without the things that built the Halos.**

 **Nipplegunz- The Krogan and Quarians will both play a rather large role for the Humans in this story, don't worry. As for the funding a rebellion bit… I do love me some proxy wars.**

 **EzraSmanlovesHalo- The UNSC already has something very comparable to Medi-Gel in its function, being Biofoam. In some ways, it'd actually be superior. I mean, for God's sake, Romeo had his chest cavity smashed in by the sharpened end of a Gravity Hammer from a Brute Chieftain. Buck just shoots some Biofoam in there, and next thing you know Romeo's on a plasma turret gunning down Covenant left and right.**

 **CReaper210- I'm not going to give anything away regarding the Covenant other than this: The galaxy is** ** _nearly_** **identical to that which can be found in the Halo universe.**

 **Alex9996- Don't worry, I'll be expanding on politics and technology much more in the future. I've started to cut back on the technological and political exposition early on in my stories because I have this nasty habit of infodumping, so I'm trying out a new strategy with this one.**

 **Talon2007- From my understanding, in order for a First Contact situation to happen, a vessel would have to approach a planet uninvited. It's not like the Humans in ME Canon invited the Turians to Shanxi, or the Humans in Star Trek invited the Vulcans to Earth. Hopefully this chapter cleared up some of the reasoning behind the UNSC's mobilization and response to the destruction of the** ** _Trailblazer_** **.**

 **Similarly, the accidental destruction of a single, small colony is not equivalent to genocide. Would you consider the U.S. Marines dropping mortars on a Vietnamese village in the 60s genocide? Probably not. The UNSC also never set foot on Palaven, they invaded a colony in the same Cluster as Palaven, yes, but they were there to destroy ONI's probe and blockade the planet. Not to kill off the local population.**

 **Esplode- I'm afraid I don't understand what this review is trying to say. I can't tell if this is a list of FTL speeds, a list of FTL ranges, or what.**

 **Everyone else (Sorry, it's hard to keep up with all of the reviews and write responses to them when you get like 30 per chapter)- I really appreciate all of the criticisms, correction of my own idiotic errors (a la Cole's time traveling adventure), and praise you guys have been giving this story. Seriously, it's awesome.**

 **And for everyone who reads my other fics, I** ** _promise_** **I'm working on updates for the others. It takes some time, and my new job has been kicking me in the balls lately.**

 **As Always,**

 **-TallYapflip, the obscenely tall Unggoy**


	5. Chapter 4: Puppet Master

**Chapter 4: Puppet Master**

 **June 5, 2534; 1826 Hours**

 **Malak System, Torfan (Surface)**

"Hunter-Actual, report." Corporal Mia Shepard quietly adjusted the zoom on her Sniper Rifle, switching it over to the twelve-power optic setting and scanning the distant ridgeline. She listened to the conversation between her NCO, Sergeant Major Avery Johnson, and Captain Keyes with one ear, and did her best to focus on her surroundings.

"No eyes on the ridge-heads, sir." Johnson answered. "Hunter 3-2, any outgoing chatter?"

"Negative, Sergeant." Private Kyle answered. "Talkie-box is all quiet."

"Office don't give bad intel, Marine." Johnson retorted over the Battle-net. "Keep scanning! Hunter 2-2, waddya' got for me?"

Hearing her callsign, Shepard keyed her comms unit and connected to the Battle-net. "Nothing on my scope, sir." She answered. Just before the inevitable stream of profanity from her NCO, she spotted something in the corner of her scope. Immediately, she swung her rifle around and zeroed-in on it. It seemed to be a Batarian, head just barely poking over the ridge as he approached the edge. His arms were behind him, almost as if he was dragging something. "Wait, eyes on." Shepard corrected. "One foot-mobile, 1.2 klicks out. Light armor, assault rifle, seems to be carrying something." As his torso came into view, she could faintly see a humanoid figure being dragged by the Batarian. The figure had a light blue tint to it. "Asari." She added.

"Well goddamn, looks like we found us some slavers!" Johnson declared into the Battle-net. "Get tactical, Marines! Shepard, you're clear to fire."

Without a moment's hesitation, Shepard pulled the trigger. It only took a few seconds for the massive, anti-material round to strike the Batarian's lightly armored torso. He fell to the ground, the round continuing through the air behind him. She had always noticed that… the disconnect. This was far from her first confirmed kill, and the strange feeling of elation that came with watching the enemy crumple to the ground still had yet to fade. It almost felt like a simulation.

"Mount up, we're going in!" Johnson declared over the Battle-net. "Recon, check up on the Asari!"

"Copy, Sergeant." One of the Force Recon Marines responded.

Shepard stood, gathered her rifle, and headed back towards the collection of three platoons behind her. They were all mounting up onto Warthogs that had been covertly dropped off on the moon's surface by Pelican-drop. Her unit had been on the surface for two weeks now, following a recent Batarian incursion against Harvest, one of the few UNSC worlds within jump-distance from the Relay network. Naturally, the local militias had managed to push them off-world with the assistance of the Marines, but there were casualties. More Mass Relays had been activated by the Council in this arm of the galaxy, now that they had a good idea of what laid on the other end, and the UNSC had shifted its patrols accordingly and had begun establishing some new colonies in the close vicinity of these Relays to provide for the ever-growing UNSC fleet's need for both bases and intelligence on potential enemies.

This operation was obviously a _gross_ breach of Batarian sovereignty, but the UNSC evidently didn't take too kindly to having their colonies threatened. Hell, word was that the Council had actually offered to turn a blind eye to this _slight_ breach of borders, behind closed doors of course.

As she climbed into the rear of a Warthog APC, she heard an armored gauntlet smack the side, likely Sergeant Johnson signaling the driver to move up. Shepard, not being one to join in on pre-op banter, silently released the magazine from the bottom of her rifle, slotting a spare round into it from her combat rig.

XXXXX

Shepard threw herself to the ground, a barrage of fire raining down on her position from the distant Batarian MG emplacement. It had all gone to shit since Recon had gone to check the Asari. She was still conscious, and had been talking with the Marines for a few moments before they arrived. From what little of the conversation she had heard, she was eerily calm, likely due to shock. The instant the four Warthogs had rolled up to the Force Recon's position, that's when shit went south.

Something in the Asari's head went off, and a soft pop severed her spinal cord. Not even a second later, two of the four Force Recon Marines had been cut down by a Batarian ambush. They had quite literally come from the ground, emerging from spider-holes. Now, thirty Marines were pinned down by MG fire, and the wounded were crying out for help. She shot a glance over towards the Warthog that she had jumped out of, spotting Johnson leaning out from behind the rear tire and firing off a burst from his Battle Rifle.

Shepard chanced a look over the small berm she was using for cover, spotting the faint scope-glint of the sniper that had ventilated her spotter's skull. She immediately put her head back down, a chunk of dirt kicking up above her a moment later. She crawled to her right a bit, dragging her rifle in her hand. After relocating, she quickly popped up, putting a round downrange at the Sniper. She didn't even have the time to appreciate the fine red mist that replaced the Batarian's head before she was forced back down by incoming fire.

She heard the distinctive _thump_ of an underslung grenade launcher firing, followed by a heavy boom as the 40mm HE grenade made contact. "Smokes!" Johnson ordered, pulling back into cover and removing a smoke grenade from his harness. He flicked the activation switch and tossed it up and over the Warthog. A few other Marines tossed their own smoke grenades, but a voice called out above the rest.

"Sergeant! APC, bearing 210!"

"Mackenzie, get a rocket out!" Johnson ordered, his wishes quickly fulfilled as a SPNKr rocket streaked towards the APC. It made contact with the front plating, the HEAT warhead splashing against the kinetic barriers, causing them to collapse. "Another!" Just as the Marine put the second rocket in her tube downrange, a round struck her in the shoulder and sent her down. The guided rocket, however, struck true against the relatively thin armor of the Batarian APC, superheated shrapnel punching all the way to the Eezo core in the center of it, engulfing it in flames.

By now, Shepard was able to take full advantage of the smoke screen. She flicked her scope over to FLIR and popped up over the berm, spotting the Batarian responsible for wounding Mackenzie. With a quick trigger pull, Shepard returned the favor in kind, likely taking his arm off in the process. As she switched targets over to the Batarian MG team, she saw Johnson climb onto the back of a chaingun Warthog, spinning up the tri-barreled cannon and sending a beam of yellow tracers downrange in the hopes of suppressing the enemy. That drew enough fire to give Shepard the opportunity to fire the rest of her magazine, all of her rounds putting a Batarian down.

Shepard dropped back down, removing the magazine from her rifle and slotting a fresh one into the mag well. "That's right, you mothers, run!" Johnson shouted, seeing some of the more-distant pirates retreating. He swept the mounted chaingun over their path, the sheer volume of fire overloading their barriers and filling them with holes. Shepard popped up again, spotting three remaining attackers through her FLIR optics. She put a round through one's head, putting the final MG out of commission. The rest of the Marines were quick in mopping up the last of their attackers.

As the clattering of shell casings and staccato of gunfire gave way to silence, the Marines all poked their heads up, relieved to see that they had managed to fend off the ambush. "York, get to the wounded!" Johnson shouted, keeping the barrels of his chaingun sweeping across the horizon. "Evans, sound off!"

After being met with a few moments of silence, Corpsman York shouted out. "He's gone, Sergeant…" Shepard glanced over, seeing York kneeling over Sergeant Evans' body.

"Son of a bitch…" Johnson muttered. 'Shepard, you're the closest goddamn thing I have to a Sergeant now! Third Platoon's yours!"

"Yes sir, Sergeant." Shepard nodded, grabbing her empty magazine from where she had dropped it.

"Kyle, mark our position for MEDEVAC, on the double!" Johnson ordered to Third Platoon's radio operator.

XXXXX

 **June 5, 2534; 2043 Hours**

 **Torfan, Surface**

Two hours. Shepard had been lying on this cliff's edge for the past two hours with almost nothing to show for it. Third Platoon had been assigned to forward recon duty, given their current lack of Force Recon Marines. On top of that, her platoon was at almost half-strength, only seven Marines. Her men were scattered across this cliff, giving them multiple lines of sight on the canyon below. The retreating Batarians had led them here, and rightfully so.

Down in the canyon below seemed to be a small, fenced-in complex guarding an entrance to a cave. There were no visible patrols or signs of a garrison, so it was quite likely that this was an abandoned mining outpost the retreating forces were using to regroup. Kyle had radioed their findings back to Johnson, and reinforcements were en-route. Keyes had even cleared the deployment of more Marines from the _Shoshone_. They'd be arriving in a few hours time.

"Kyle, what's the status on our reinforcements?" Shepard asked into her comms unit.

"Fifteen mikes out, ma'am." Kyle answered.

Sighing, Shepard returned to the scope of her rifle and continued to scan the compound. As she heard the soft crunching of dirt beneath boots, she sighed. "Took you long enough, Private. I need you back on the spotter's-" As she turned her head to look, she expected to find her new spotter that had gone to relieve himself. Instead, she saw herself looking at a slight shimmering. Try as she might, she couldn't get her magnum on target before the butt of a rifle came down on her head, sending her world into darkness.

XXXXX

 **June 6, 2534; 0034 Hours**

 **Torfan, Surface (Abandoned Mining Network)**

Chief flicked his helmet's lights on, keeping his Battle Rifle shouldered and prepared to fire. Kelly, Fred, and Linda were a step behind him, weapons trained outwards as they descended into the mining network. Chief kept a close eye on his motion tracker as he moved, occasionally glancing down to it whenever they descended a few meters.

Keyes had personally cleared Blue Team's deployment to Torfan's surface, due in no small part to the Batarian use of guerrilla warfare against the UNSC's Marine forces on the planet. Strike teams had been dispatched all over the planet, and they were met by light, but _very_ effective resistance. If Keyes' briefing was anything to go off of, Strike Team Hunter had stumbled into the thickest of it. After their small skirmish with a Batarian squad, John felt right at home. Counter-insurgency was what the SPARTANs were built for, after all.

"Motion." John's voice crackled over the local Battle-net. "Three contacts, twelve o'clock, twenty meters."

Blue Team proceeded quietly, moving towards the blips on their motion trackers. As he rounded a bend in the tunnel, John spotted a trio of Batarians standing around a heat lamp of some kind, speaking in their guttural tongue to one another. Thankfully, his armor had not only been fitted with Kinetic Shielding tech, but with a translator as well. All courtesy of the Office of Naval Intelligence. He motioned to the rest of his team to hold their positions behind him. He hugged the wall, listening to their conversation for a moment.

"You hear? We lost contact with two of our outposts."

"You're surprised? They're all a bunch of damn rookies."

"Taken out by a bunch of primitives with combustion guns… what a fucking joke."

"I don't know, that sniper rifle they use packs one hell of a punch. Thing hits like a mass driver, took Jehet's arm clean off."

"At least we got the bitch that took him and Ghoren out. Imagine how much she'll sell for back home." _That_ certainly caught John's attention. It was a certain point of pride for him, not that he'd ever show it, that he cared for the common Marine a bit more than the rest of the SPARTANs of his generation, and the sheer thought of selling a prisoner of war into slavery sickened him to his very core. He had already come to detest the Batarians… this was the final nail in their coffin as far as he was concerned.

With a quick hand motion from their commander, Blue Team moved. John popped out from his rocky cover, putting three bursts from his Battle Rifle into the head of the nearest Batarian. The first two splashed against his kinetic barriers relatively harmlessly, but the third burst put three neat ascending holes in the side of his head. The suppressor attached to the barrel of his rifle kept the report down to the _crack_ that followed a supersonic projectile, and the sound of the rifle's bolt slamming back.

Kelly moved out behind John, peppering the next target with her M7S SMG, this weapon's report almost completely silent, save for the light hissing that followed the bullets. Fred popped out a moment later, sending six rounds downrange from his M6 SOCOM magnum. The armor piercing ammunition loaded into his magnum made short, and very effective work of the last hostile's shields, and slotted the last round right through the faceplate, sending him to the floor.

As the last hostile hit the floor, John glanced down to his motion tracker. Satisfied that their presence was still unknown, he looked back to Blue Team. "Tracker clear." He said. "Check fire, potential hostage."

"Copy." Blue Team all echoed, falling into step behind their leader as they continued deeper into the abandoned mine.

XXXXX

 **June 5, 2534; 0056 Hours (Military-Standard Time)**

 **Citadel, Council Conference Room**

President Yevgeny found himself to be _very_ short on patience, very quickly. He had only been sitting at this Council-mediated conference for fifteen minutes, and he was already mere moments from asking the nearby Spectre that was providing security for the conference to just shoot him and get it over with. He had been on the Citadel to oversee the official opening of the UEG's embassy on the Presidium, and as luck would have it, the Batarian Ambassador demanded a meeting with him. He already knew what got the ambassador so riled up, but he decided to play along with his wishes. It was quite likely that the Council agreed to mediate this dispute simply to placate the Hegemony, and Yevgeny could use that to his advantage.

"The Hegemony demands answers, Human!" The Batarian ambassador declared, prompting the President to simply interlace his fingers on the table. He couldn't help but smirk as he cocked his head a bit to the right, an insult in Batarian society. "I fail to see what is humorous about this! This is an act of war!"

"Ambassador, please…" Valern attempted.

"It's alright, Councilor." Yevgeny waved off the Salarian's attempt to shut the Batarian up. He made a point of focusing his gaze on the ambassador's top pair of eyes, another sign of disrespect in Batarian culture. "Since the _esteemed_ Ambassador asked so nicely, I'll provide."

"You look in the lower eyes in formal situations, Human." The Ambassador's rough voice was forced as he clenched his teeth down. "I suppose I shouldn't be surprised, all of you are alike."

"With _respect_ , Ambassador, I'll look wherever I damn well please." Yevgeny responded, his own eyes narrowing. "Now, as for the answers you were so adamant about getting a moment ago… Since you've shown your ineptitude in dealing with the rampant piracy in the Traverse, the UNSC has taken it upon itself to solve that problem for you."

"What you have done is violate our borders, Human." The Ambassador accused.

"It's President Yevgeny, _Batarian_." The President responded in stride. "You're lucky we're only over Torfan. As far as the UEG public is currently aware, this is a peacekeeping operation in response to a pirate raid on Harvest. Even if I wanted to, I couldn't stop the War that would break out if the _truth_ came out."

"Mister President… what do you mean?" Tevos asked, confused. Even she was unaware of this.

"Intelligence gathered by the Office of Naval Intelligence suggests that the Batarian Hegemony directly sponsored this raid against Harvest with the intent to not only collect Human technology, but… Humans, as well."

"Lies!" The Ambassador shouted. "Even if you had 'proof', it's likely just a fabrication by one of your accursed AIs!"

"You mean to tell me that this communique, intercepted by ONI in the absence of an artificial intelligence, was fabricated by an artificial intelligence?" The President asked, removing his Datapad from his coat, keying the biometric lock, and sliding it across the table. Yevgeny could practically see the moment the Ambassador's stomach flipped as he looked at the message that ONI had intercepted, still written in Batarian with _perfect_ syntax and grammar. Yevgeny already knew the contents of the message. It was so short, sweet, and utterly damning.

 _"_ _Mission complete. State Arms tech was effective. Human small arms and thirty Humans are being brought to Torfan and will be awaiting pickup."_ The message was sent from one of the Batarian ships that had managed to escape the UNSC fleet… straight to the address belonging to the Batarian War Minister.

"If you want to talk about a declaration of war… there it is." Yevgeny deadpanned. "All it would take from me is one call to Earth, and that gets plastered across UEG space. Once that happens, well… You'll have forty billion Humans crying for war."

"Even if this were true, those are hollow threats, _Human_ ". The Ambassador recovered, glaring Yevgeny down. "We are an associate of this Council!"

"Mister President, do you have proof that this message implicates the Batarian government?" Sparatus asked.

"The recipient being the Hegemony's War Minster isn't enough?" Yevgeny asked, earning a flared mandible from Sparatus. Wordlessly, Tevos took the Datapad and scanned over its contents. Much to her surprise, she was looking at the transcript of an _audio_ message, complete with a copy of the intercepted message and all associated data from not only the sender, but the receiver as well.

"The evidence is rather damning…" Tevos handed the Datapad over to Sparatus.

"Indeed…" Sparatus sighed. Truthfully, he couldn't tell whether it was a falsehood or not, but the sheer fact that the UNSC had somehow managed to procure the secure channel that the Hegemony sent military communications over, and had physical proof that this message was indeed sent on that channel, was damn-near irrefutable.

"You'll stand idly by while the Humans invade our space?!" The Ambassador asked, looking to the Councilors with a look of shock on his face.

"You've used hundreds of thousands of sentient beings as little more than pieces of meat for the past thousand years…" Yevgeny deadpanned. "What the hell did you expect?"

"Our caste system is an integral part of our culture, you arrogant-" The Ambassador was swiftly cut off by the President, who was growing rather tired of this seemingly endless back-and-forth ad-hominem.

"I swear to Christ, if you play the damn race or culture card on me one more time, I'll give the order to plaster that message all over UEG space, and give the fleet clearance to mobilize."

"More hollow threats from a hollow, corrupt 'democracy'." The Ambassador scoffed.

"Councilor, may I?" Yevgeny held his hand out, signaling that he'd like his Datapad back. Sparatus obliged, handing the tablet back over.

Yevgeny took the tablet in his hands, swiping over the screen a few times and typing in a security code. In a moment, it established a secure connection to the UNSC Waypoint Network, completing the connection at FLEETCOM on Reach. "Mister President?" Admiral Cole asked from the other end of the comms, the distance between Reach and the Citadel giving a few moments of time-lag.

"Admiral Cole, notify Admiral Rich that the fleet is hereby given clearance to put the NOVA on standby. I want all UNSC assets in the Outer Colonies prepared to mobilize." The President ordered. It wasn't a _huge_ surprise to him that Cole was slightly taken-aback by this, as shown by the longer-than-necessary pause. It had only been a few months since Cole was introduced to the UNSC's most destructive weapon.

"R-Right away, Mister President." With that, Yevgeny severed the connection and turned back to the Ambassador.

"Does that sound like a hollow threat to you?" He asked, his face impatient, yet rock-solid.

"Mister President… let's not be hasty here." Tevos attempted. She wasn't even sure if Yevgeny was bluffing or not, but she _really_ didn't want to confirm it.

"I have no intention of escalating this skirmish, so long as the Hegemony returns _every_ man, woman, and child taken from their homes on Harvest, along with any technology you've stolen from us." Yevgeny explained. "You have exactly twenty four galactic standard hours to meet these demands, followed by a confirmation sweep of Batarian Space by ONI. Fail to meet these demands, and I will clear HIGHCOM to use whatever methods they deem necessary to ensure the safety of the UEG and her citizens."

"You're going to allow this?!" The Ambassador looked to the Councilors, shocked.

"Just for a moment, Tevos, I want you to imagine the number of Asari that are some Batarian's toy, or have been born into slavery over the past millennium. Sparatus, imagine how many of your people have been killed during standard picket patrols. Valern, all you need to do is look to the recent raid on Rannadril. The Council has let the Batarians skirt around the most basic of sentient rights, all under the guise of their culture demanding it."

Yevgeny watched as the three Councilors looked to one another for a moment, all of them nodding to each other. Tevos, of course, spoke for the Council. "The Council will not be taking an active role in this conflict, should it occur." Yevgeny allowed himself a smirk as the Ambassador's jaw dropped open. "If I may make a suggestion, Ambassador, facilitating dialogue between the Hegemon and the President would be the best course of action."

"Indeed… it would." Yevgeny agreed. "You have twenty four hours… might want to get started on those calls to Kar'Shan."

XXXXX

 **June 6, 2534; 0043 Hours**

 **Torfan, Abandoned Mining Network**

Chief watched as the pings from the Marine squads that had inserted into the other entrances of the mining network, confirming their sectors were now clear of enemy resistance, danced across his HUD. Now, all that was left was the single Batarian Blue Team was in a stand-off with. He was standing behind a collection of three wounded Marines, and had another Marine's neck wrapped around his left arm, as he held an Omni-Blade up to the side of her head with his right.

All four of the Marines were stripped out of their armor, left only in their fatigues. It was abundantly clear to the SPARTAN that they had been tortured, given the burns, cuts, and bruises on their exposed skin. One of the Marines on the floor was clutching the stumps where three of his fingers on his right hand used to be, looking to be near unconsciousness from blood loss now that the shock was wearing off. The three Marines were flagged on his HUD as Pvt. Edward Muller, UNSCMC; Pvt. Anton Sokolov, UNSCMC; and PFC. Andrew Davies, UNSCMC.

The woman that the Batarian was using as a hostage seemed to have taken the worst of it, though. It seemed almost as if parts of her skin had been sheared off. Her OD-green fatigues were in tatters, and John could clearly see that she had been _abused_ … even in some of the worst-imaginable ways. His HUD flagged her as Cpl. Mia Shepard, UNSCMC FORECON.

The Batarian looked shocked as he stared down four Humans that absolutely towered over him, clad in heavy powered armor with reflective gold visors. He was only wearing medium-weight armor with relatively high-grade kinetic barriers, but no amount of armor could hide the fearful shake in his limbs.

"Stand down!" John ordered, keeping his reticle trained firmly on the Batarian's exposed hand. "Marines have this facility secured."

"I'm not walking out of here alive, and you know that damn well, Human scum!" The Batarian pirate leader declared. "At least I can take comfort knowing that I'm taking one of your kind with me!"

Silently, John marked the exposed limbs of the Batarian with his VISR system, assigning the right leg to Kelly, the left leg to Fred, and the head for Linda. He'd have his right arm. He then sent out the "Engage" ping, and all four SPARTANs opened fire at the same time. John's burst from his Battle Rifle struck first, all three rounds impacting against the Kinetic Barriers with little effect. The effect it did have was to drive the Omni-Blade down into the Corporal's shoulder, the searing-hot mini-fabricated blade digging down into the joint, earning a scream of pain from the Corporal. The short, controlled burst from Fred's MA5 struck next, causing the Batarian to stumble back, the blade removing itself from the Corporal's shoulder, and his arm that held her in place fell slack. Kelly didn't even get the satisfaction of her rounds hitting before Linda's 14.5mm Sabot round from her compact SRS-99C pierced the Batarian's skull, splattering gray matter on the rock wall behind him. Kelly's rounds from her SMG only struck dirt.

The Corporal, now finding herself unsupported, fell to the ground with a heavy thud. All of the Marines, including her, looked absolutely shocked at what just happened. "Kelly, Fred: Biofoam!" John ordered, sending the 'Sector Clear' ping a moment later. Not even a second later, he received a 'Mission Complete' ping from the _Shoshone_.

As Kelly and Fred removed Biofoam canisters from their combat harnesses, John keyed his connection to the _Shoshone_. "UNSC _Shoshone_ , this is Sierra-117 requesting immediate Medevac at grid Kilo-two-three."

XXXXX

 **June 8, 2534; 1245 Hours**

 **UNSC** ** _Shoshone_** **, Med-Bay (Slipstream Space)**

Shepard slowly awoke, her brain throbbing against her skull. It took a moment, but she recognized the sterile, white ceiling above her… she was in a Med-Bay aboard a UNSC vessel. Everything was a blur. One moment, she was providing overwatch on a small canyon, next she's looking down four barrels as soldiers in armor she'd never seen before confronted… that _fucking_ Batarian.

Her fingers clenched down on the sterile sheets she laid on. It took her a moment to realize it, but she could only feel the sheets in _one_ hand. Glancing over to her right arm, she very nearly had a heart attack. Her arm had been amputated at the shoulder, and was wrapped in a sterile bandage. She couldn't quite believe her eyes, but her body wasn't lying. As she tried to move the phantom limb, all she was rewarded with was a searing pain in her shoulder

It was only about now that the memories started coming back, and she was absolutely, completely, planet-shatteringly pissed. _'I'm killing every one of those fucking four-eyed freaks_. _'_ She thought.

"Whoa… hold on there, Corporal." Sergeant Johnson's voice startled her a bit, and she looked over. Had she said that out loud? Color her surprised, because this was the first time she wasn't seeing a commanding look on Johnson's face. She had been assigned to his unit for the past six months, and he seemed to be perpetually drill instructor-level demanding… but not this time. Hell, he was even in a t-shirt. It was a grey shirt with 'UNSC' proudly stamped on the front, but it was still a t-shirt.

"Sergeant Major…" She attempted a salute, but found her arm stopped by an IV line.

"Slow down there, Shepard." Johnson offered, holding his hands out in an attempt to get her to relax. "We salute the rank in my beloved Corps, not the man." He allowed himself a small smirk. "And it'll keep that tube in your arm."

"Aye, sir." Shepard nodded, shaking her head to get a few stray strands of black hair out of her eyes.

"You're lookin' better, Marine." Johnson consoled. "Hell, I saw you when the medics carted you off the Pelican. I'd say this is a definite improvement."

"Certainly doesn't feel like one…" Shepard sighed, pushing the memories _way_ down. She was glad to have a distraction, even if it was her normally hard-assed CO.

"I know what you mean… even flash-cloning can't heal all the scars." Johnson admitted. Unbeknownst to him, Shepard felt a chill run the length of her spine. "Figure I should warn 'ya, ONI Spook's gonna be handling your debriefing."

"Thank you, sir." Shepard offered a nod.

"Don't mention it, kid." Johnson did his best to give a sincere smile. "And get some rest, I'm gonna need the best damn shot in the Corps back soon."

"Will do, sir." Shepard forced a smile in return, and Johnson seemed satisfied. It was only a moment later when the door to the Med-Bay slid open.

Shepard glanced over to the source of the noise, spotting a pale UNSC Army officer step into the bay. His perfectly-polished boots clacked against the metal floor as he approached, and Shepard could not only make out a Colonel's rank pinned to his shoulders, but an ONI pin on his collar. She immediately felt her heart sink into her gut at the sight. His nameplate read out "Col. James Ackerson".

"Sergeant, if I could have a few minutes alone with the Corporal?" Ackerson asked as he approached.

Sergeant Johnson saluted Ackerson. "Understood." He said, turning and heading for the door.

Shepard found the Med-Bay to be occupied by nothing but silence for a moment, only broken by Ackerson after Johnson had left and the door had slid shut. It was only now that Shepard realized she was alone in the Med-Bay. Every other bed was unoccupied, and left her feeling uneasy. "Corporal Mia Elizabeth Shepard, it's my understanding that you've recently been… made aware of a covert Special Warfare Unit. Is this correct?"

"The ones in green armor with gold visors?" Shepard asked, earning a nod from Ackerson. "Yes, sir. That is correct."

"Please, correct me if I'm wrong, but it's also my understanding that you have developed something of a reputation with Force Recon as a crack-shot sniper?"

"Yes, sir." Shepard nodded. She consciously decided that humility wouldn't suit her here, and it would just be best to agree with the Colonel unless he was blatantly trying to trap her in something. So far, he seemed to simply be asking yes or no questions.

"Are you at all familiar with the rumors surrounding the reassigning of UNSC personnel to Reach?" Ackerson asked.

"Yes, sir." Shepard nodded. She had picked up on a few rumors, namely one suggesting that personnel who showed great aptitude were re-assigned to Reach for special operations training, even as young as seventeen. At Ackerson's request, Shepard elaborated on what she had heard.

"Well, Corporal, I am in a position to offer you a promotion, as well as a lateral transfer to NAVSPECWAR; all under authority from ONI, of course." Ackerson explained, his face remaining completely level and neutral. At Shepard's confused look, he elaborated. "This is not an offer that is made to just any Marine, bear in mind. And it's not one I will be in a position to offer again."

"Please, understand that if you choose to decline this offer once I explain it, you will not be permitted to share anything until otherwise notified by ONI." Ackerson said. After a nod of understanding from Shepard, he gave her the simple phrase that he had given the other potential recruits… slightly tailored to her current situation. "You've seen them in action already… how would you like to become a SPARTAN?"

Shepard was stunned, almost slack-jawed. The sheer thought that an ONI Colonel was offering something like this to her was almost too much for her to handle right now. She had expected a complete debriefing on her situation, potentially re-assignment at first. After Ackerson had brought up the… SPARTANs she had seen, her next thought was that she'd either be recruited into ONI, or simply killed. But now? She was getting an offer to become a super-soldier. Her, at eighteen years old, getting an offer to become a super-soldier! To her, there was only one option. She had one question for the Colonel, however. "What are my obligations to the UNSC, if I accept?"

Ackerson seemed thoughtful for a moment. Truth be told, he had never been asked that. He had to rack his brain for a moment to find the answer he was looking for, but he remembered one of the stipulations that Fleet Admiral Cole had put in place before the Project would be officially funded. "You'll be require to serve an additional four duty contracts with the UNSC, totaling at twenty four years. After which, you will be able to retire if you so choose." At her surprised look, Ackerson elaborated a bit more. "The procedures are… expensive. The UNSC is investing quite a sum in each individual recruit. Similarly… the process seems to slow aging."

"I'll do it." Shepard nodded.

XXXXX

 **June 9, 2534; 1731 Hours**

 **Geneva-Class Envoy Vessel UNSC** ** _Geneva_** **, President's Quarters (Slipstream Space)**

President Yevgeny leaned back on the small sofa that sat in the center of his private quarters. It was only now that he had started heading back to Earth after the diplomatic shit show that was the Torfan issue. Luckily, right at the twenty-three hour mark, the Hegemony had agreed to the UEG's demands.

He swiped a hand across his datapad, connecting to Admiral Parangosky after a moment of waiting. "Admiral, any word on the terms?" He asked.

"The Hegemony has come through in full." Parangosky explained. "All missing colonists are accounted for, and Captain Cutter's AI confirms that all missing UNSC military technology has been accounted for as well."

"Excellent news." The President smiled.

"There is, however, a minor complication." Parangosky added, almost sounding regretful that she had to break this news to the President. "SPARTAN Blue Team has confirmed the identity of the Batarian responsible for leading the raid on Harvest's surface… he was related by blood to the Hegemon, and is confirmed KIA at the hands of Blue Team."

"This is a complication… how?" Yevgeny asked. Truth be told, he had no desire to maintain anything even remotely resembling cordial relations with the Batarians, and neither did the Senate if their recent resolution to completely embargo the Hegemony, as well as ban all travel between the UEG and Hegemony, at all reflected their opinion on the matter. He still had to sign off on those two.

"You should see for yourself, sir." Parangosky offered, the President finding a file being uploaded to his Datapad. He minimized the connection to Parangosky, and opened up the file. It was labeled 'Torfan – Alpha-1 Classification by ONI Section Two'. Yevgeny tapped out his clearance code and accessed the file, finding a full report on the findings from Torfan. Everything seemed about as he expected… up until he got to the 'Personnel Reports' section.

When he scanned over the laundry list of atrocities committed against UNSC military personnel, he had to consciously work to keep his dinner down. Flayed skin, torture, mutilation, execution, and… He had to stop at that last one, it very nearly made him snap the Datapad in half at the sight of the word alone. "Admiral…" He began, teeth clenched down in anger. "Is our intelligence regarding the unrest in Batarian space accurate?"

"Yes, sir." Parangosky affirmed. "There are numerous rebel cells operating against the Hegemony as deep in their space as Kar'Shan."

"You have clearance to assist these cells by any means necessary, barring granting technology." The President ordered. "Consider it an executive order."

He could almost hear Parangosky's predatory smirk. "Of course, sir."

 **A/N:**

 **Wew, lads, another update.**

 **I've come to absolutely and completely love ONI after starting this project. They're just a blast to write for, and there's so many opportunities that having something like ONI opens up; from statecraft to proxy wars to intergalactic political fuckery. It's great!**

 **As always, it's review time (Ones that I can actually respond to, that is):**

 **Time Reflects- Oh, by far, the Flood are the greater threat of the two. Sure, they're similar in the sense that they can turn your fallen against you, but it's actually possible to remove a Reaper infestation without completely blanketing the planet's surface in plasma or nukes.**

 **Gerome945- I always considered Forward Unto Dawn to be a bit more in the realm of an indie film. I was more referencing a true, big-budget Halo film like those rumors a few years back talked about. Directed by Peter Jackson or something. I mean, the potential for stories in Halo is practically limitless, and the first game would translate pretty well to the big screen if you threw in a few of the character from The Flood novel like Silva.**

 **Uzumaki-sama011- 400 billion people in the UNSC? Ignoring the in-universe explanation from Dr. Halsey in Reach putting the projected pre-war population at 39 billion, that kind of growth rate is absolutely insane. You're talking about 393 billion people being born in just over 500 years. To put that in perspective, the total Human population OF ALL TIME, from the dawn of the species Homo Sapiens to this very second, is estimated to be ~108 billion.**

 **Granet- There are indeed certain things from the Halo universe I won't be using (343's shitty Elite design being one of them). As for tech that I won't be using (For the UNSC, at least), I'm basically open to anything so long as it has a precedent to exist in the timeframe that the story is taking place in.**

 **Zeus501- Oh, the shit storm happened. As for the Quarians and the Krogan, I won't spoil it. I have quite the arcs set up for them.**

 **CReaper210- That peace that they signed was basically just the armistice that would make way for the official negotiations. It was basically just both sides saying "alright, let's agree to not kill each other or move fleets around while we negotiate."**

 **ABuzzman- Thanks, my dude. And don't worry, it's only gay if leg hair touches.**

 **Lanzador- I could be wrong, but I thought the most recent population figure for the UEG was Dr. Halsey's datapad from Halo Reach, putting it around 39 billion. Like I said, could be wrong because I haven't read all of the new lore (pretty much the only 'new' Halo thing I've read is New Blood, because Buck).**

 **Mass Effect has never been too transparent with the power that the Council actually holds. But, from what I've come to understand, it's allowed to patrol the space of member races, create operatives that are above the laws of all member races, and was cited in ME1 as being able to deploy fleets for action. Not to mention holding a certain measure of legislative power over member races. That's always the issue with writing ME stuff, it's all a bit too open to interpretation.**

 **SirRoland- Indeed, it is still early. I have no intention to leave the Chief out of things. He's going to remain a major character for the entirety of the story, and will continue to have portions told from his POV.**

 **KorPA- I'm German, these strange Slavic names are alien to me. I apologize for butchering eastern European naming conventions.**

 **Guest- I'd be remiss if I excluded the coolest goddamn ship in Halo canon.**

 **Guest #2- Not quite** ** _soon_** **(tm), but they will be upgrading their FTL.**

 **Guest #3- That's precisely why I explained how the UEG** ** _didn't_** **join the Council. They're an observer. Literally all they do is hold an embassy on the Citadel. You know, the thing you kinda need for any sort of diplomacy that isn't gunboat diplomacy?**

 **Guest #4- Should've been more specific, and I've since changed the synopsis to more accurately represent what I meant. The Insurrection isn't technically** ** _over_** **per-se, it's more just such a minor threat that the UNSC hasn't launched any major operations against the URF or Secessionists since the end of Operation: TREBUCHET.**

 **Guest#5- I'm partially convinced that these next 3-4 guest reviews are all from the same person, since they so frequently mention a "Golden Age" that I've never even made reference to once beyond their territorial holdings. I wouldn't exactly call the post-war era a golden age, given all of the cataclysmic shit that's been happening to the UNSC since the dissolution of the Greater Covenant, and the fact that their population was reduced by well over half by an attempted genocide.**

 **Not once did I ever mention their technology mirroring that of the post-war or Ancient Humanity, because it doesn't. I don't know if you've actually read anything beyond the author's note, but the story starts in 2531, and the UNSC hasn't met ANY sentient alien life up until that point other than wildlife. Their technology between Chapters 1 and 3 is literally Halo Wars tier, minus the plasma rhino and energy shields for the SPARTANs. Hell, up until meeting the Council, personal shielding tech was still almost entirely theoretical.**

 **On the topic of Halo Wars, you mentioned the Spirit of Fire not being outfitted for combat? Based on what was seen in the game, that was a pretty heavily-armed ship for being a colony vessel. Not to mention the fact that the Spirit of Fire had undergone refits to become an "Assault Ship" (by modern military standards) prior to first contact with the Covenant. It was likely meant to be used in Anti-Insurrection campaigns prior to the Human-Covenant war.**

 **It's also far from a new concept for militaries to refit civilian ships for military service. Even if they're not refitted, many countries have used civilian ships for military purposes in recent years. Probably the best example of this would be the Evacuation of Dunkirk. As for military refits of civilian ships to turn them into warships, it was actually a common occurrence with cruise ships during both the 1** **st** **and 2** **nd** **World Wars. The sheer size of the Phoenix-Class in Halo makes it a perfect pseudo-carrier/assault ship.**

 **Kurogane- I'll absolutely be including** ** _Infinity_** **at some point. Not for a bit, but it'll show up. As for** ** _Normandy_** **, I have plans for that. Don't worry.**

 **Darthharmony312- ME Lore actually states that Element Zero helps in the creation of advanced materials by lowering the mass of objects, theoretically making manufacturing easier. Basically, all it did in regards to MJOLNIR was make it cheaper and easier to produce. Plus, added kinetic barriers to it, but as the scientist mentioned, that was just a stopgap measure while the UNSC continued research into Halsey's proposed shielding, which is more in-line with Halo shields.**

 **Husebad- I've actually considered writing an absolute curbstomp against the Reapers for quite a while now. I've been putting it off in favor of writing longer, more serious stuff like this, though. Who knows? I might decide to put something up like that.**

 **The observer- We'll see how the Unggoy will play into things (I enjoy suspense, sue me).**

 **LordGhostStriker- You'll see ;).**

 **A Reader- I concede that I was wrong about the Eezo cores, I'll go back and change that relatively soon.**

 **Darkfinder- That city was only a city in the loosest sense of the word. Yeah, it was a relatively large settlement for a colony, but it was miniscule compared to what the UNSC doctrine is used to fighting in. Since the UNSC had been fighting the Insurrection for quite some time, much of their doctrine would reflect urban combat and counter-insurgency/asymmetric warfare. Even in the games, the UNSC tended to avoid the "Grand Battleplan" style. As far as I know, the only example of a full-scale, front-based battle in the games was in Reach when all of those Warthogs and Falcons were charging a Covenant force.**

 **Everyone else- Thanks for the reviews, guys. As always, I love all of them, and I've read all of them. I appreciate all of the love you've been giving this so far. I hope this update's up to snuff for you all.**

 **As Always,**

 **-TallYapflip**


	6. Chapter 5: Adapt or Die

**Chapter 5: Adapt or Die**

 **January 1, 2535; 0600 Hours**

 **Reach, FLEETCOM Headquarters (Subsection "ORION-III")**

Ensign Shepard filed into the large room, lit by the bright LED lights that the UNSC had plastered all over the facilities of Reach. It was laid out like an amphitheater, with acoustics amplified by the semicircular construction and descending step layout. Her, along with ninety nine others, filed into the room and took their seats. She had been planetside for less than three hours, and already they had issued her a new uniform, new nameplate, new rank pins, and even a new name. From here on in, she was A-057, Mia. Her new uniform, a simple set of black fatigues lacking any flair beyond rank and name, had her new name printed just above her heart.

Reach was a strange new world to her. She had lived her entire life in the Outer Colonies, born on Arcadia, one of the few Outer Colony worlds frequented by UNSC forces, mostly for shore leave. She had been living in the capital of Pirth City when she made the decision to enlist in the Marines… she had no idea she'd wind up here.

Standing on a small "stage" at the center of the amphitheater was a woman, a man with Senior Chief Petty Officer rank pinned to his shoulders, and four _massive_ soldiers in the same OD-Green Armor she had found herself staring down just months ago. She had no idea what had taken ONI such a long time to ship her out to Reach, but she would likely never get her answer… the Office wasn't fond of sharing secrets.

The woman, lacking any military affiliation by the looks of things, began speaking. Her voice was calm, collected, and almost _too_ smooth. Like she had done this before, somewhere. Her arms were clasped behind her back as she addressed the 100 Marines, ODSTs, Army, Navy, and Air Force personnel in the room. "Per Naval Code 45813, you are hereby conscripted into UNSC Special Project codenamed 'Orion-III', also known as 'SPARTAN-III'. You have been called upon to serve. You will be trained; and you will become the best we can make of you. You will _all_ be the protectors of Earth, and her colonies." She glanced over to the Marine. "Chief Petty Officer Mendez?"

The Marine stepped forward, standing at rigid attention. "Recruits… I am Chief Petty Officer Franklin Mendez. All of you are Ensigns, but as long as you are here, your rank means nothing to me. From dawn to dusk, day in and day out, you will regard me as your commanding officer. I will drill you, I will train your bodies, and I will hone the skills you already possess. The SPARTANs to my left; Kurt, Jerome, Alice, and Douglas were under my tutelage before they emerged as SPARTANs, just as you will. All of you will be divided into four distinct platoons, and one of them will be your leader. I will be the one deciding who you train under."

Shepard listened intently as Mendez rattled off names that she didn't recognize. All of these recruits were pulled from every corner of service, every background, and every discipline of war. There were snipers like herself, pointmen, riflemen, demolitions specialists, pilots, and everything in between. She heard her name called out, just after a few others that also shared a last initial with her. "A-057, Kurt." She glanced over to the SPARTAN she would be trained under. Just like the others, he was a behemoth compared to Mendez. His armor hid his features, shrouding him in an anonymity that seemed… strange for a commanding officer. Once the assignments were declared, Mendez took a short pause before continuing. "Recruits, fall out and report to the mess!"

XXXXX

 **March 1, 2535; 1853 Hours**

 **Viery Territories Countryside, 5km Outside FLEETCOM Complex**

Shepard grunted as another recruit's fist connected with her side, sending a jolt of pain through her body. She was a sniper, not a point-man. She had considered herself relatively proficient at hand-to-hand combat. Sure, she had gone through the normal drills in her training, but this was next level. Mendez had made it explicitly clear that recruits were _not_ to hold back, and this mass of an ODST she was facing off against certainly seemed to take that order and run with it.

All of the other recruits had been paired off, and were being watched by their SPARTAN-II leaders. She could practically feel Kurt and Mendez's glare in the back of her head when she found herself knocked on her ass by an admittedly impressive maneuver from the ODST she was facing off against. "057, what the hell was that?" She winced as Mendez' voice shouted out over the sounds of training soldiers. She heard him stomp over as she pulled herself to her feet, and just barely caught a glimpse of the ODST's self-assured smirk. "You think going on the defensive will save your ass?" He shouted, mere inches from her now. "I don't think I saw you throw a single goddamn punch that whole fight!"

"No opportunity presented itself, sir." Shepard answered, standing up straight despite the bruises she could feel forming beneath the tank top she was wearing.

"Bull-fucking-shit, Recruit!" Mendez shouted. "Your enemy isn't always going to give you a goddamn opportunity! You're to make your _own_ opportunities! Again!"

"Sir?" The ODST asked, Mendez immediately wheeling around to face him. "Permission to speak freely, sir?"

"Tentatively granted, Recruit." Mendez answered.

"Shouldn't I be facing someone more skilled, sir?" The ODST asked.

"You'll fight who I fucking tell you to fight, Recruit!" Mendez retorted, almost sounding insulted at the thought of the ODST questioning his wisdom. "Again!" He walked back towards Kurt, standing beside him and crossing his arms over his chest as he watched the two return to a ready stance.

Seeing the ODST's look of disdain that he sent towards her as she squared up, she simply couldn't help herself. "Problem?" She asked.

"You shouldn't even fucking be here, Shepard." The ODST practically hissed, his words obviously not being heard by Mendez. Much to her surprise, she saw Kurt's head turn to look at them. He had removed the helmet, and now his eyes were watching them with a certain… interest that she had never seen from him before. She almost found herself clocked in the jaw, but she managed to pull her head out of the way just in time.

"And why's that?" Shepard asked, her voice remaining low enough to _hopefully_ avoid the wrath of Chief Mendez. Now that she had focused a bit more… she could swear that this ODST was familiar.

"SPARTANs had to pull your ass out of the fire." The ODST returned, attempting to send his knee into her side. She pulled her weight to the side to mitigate the blow. Now _that's'_ why she thought she recognized this ODST. He was stationed on the _Shoshone_. "Why the spooks decided to bring in some upstart Corporal that almost wound up as a piece of meat for the ridge-heads to _fuck_ is beyond-"

Shepard had thought she had been mad before, but this was something else. Her vision was almost red-tinted, and her body seemed to shift into autopilot mode. Her fist connected with his throat, causing him to stumble back for a moment. As he desperately attempted to cough the breath out of his lungs, Shepard took hold of his arm, wrenched him to the ground, planted a foot on the back of his right calf, and yanked. The ODST let out a howl before Shepard brought her fist against his temple, sending him to the ground.

As she took a step back from the battered ODST, her vision had un-tunneled itself, and the sounds around her, or lack thereof in this case, filtered back into her brain. Every Recruit, SPARTAN, and even Mendez looked at her in surprise as she stood over an ODST with a dislocated shoulder and wrist, violently coughing as his lungs attempted to take in air. One thing stood out to her among all others… the small smirk that had crossed Kurt's features.

XXXXX

 **August 21, 2536; 1843 Hours**

 **Reach, FLEETCOM Complex**

Shepard took a shaky breath as she stepped forward. She was next in line for the _true_ transformation. She was clad in her skivvies, along with every other recruit awaiting their time on the slab. As she heard her name called out over the intercom, she sucked in a deep breath and stepped through the door as it slid opened.

She followed behind the pair of scientists as they led her to a metallic surgical gurney. Robotic arms protruded from a central disc above the bed, and it was a sight that sent a chill down her spine. At their request, she pulled herself onto the surface of the gurney, a shiver running the length of her body as her bare skin pressed against the cool metal. She couldn't help but find herself concerned when the doctors strapped her into the gurney with manacles, but she could only assume what would be done to her.

After a moment of mentally steeling herself, and nodding at everything the doctors said to her, she heard the robotic arms whir to life, and heard a faint drilling noise from her peripherals. She lightly trembled in her restraints as weight pressed down on her arms and legs, and she felt three injections in each limb. At first, it was a light prick of the skin, not unlike an IV, but then… then it was like napalm being injected into her blood. All she remembered was a single, pained scream before her world drifted into darkness.

What had been nearly a full day felt like a mere moment to her, however, as she eventually drifted back into consciousness. She found herself lying on that same bed, manacles removed. Every part of her felt sore, from her head down to her toes. As she looked down, she discovered why.

Her arms were practically covered in surgical scars, along with the rest of her body. Much to her surprise, the pain was almost negligible. She even found herself able to read the fine print on the screen that was _across_ the room, at least fifty feet away.

As she glanced around the room, she saw Kurt and Mendez walking towards her. "You're awake, good." Mendez began. "Count yourself lucky, SPARTAN… this just earned you two days of rest before your _real_ training starts."

XXXXX

 **December 1, 2536; 0126 Hours**

 **Reach FLEETCOM Complex, MJOLNIR Labs**

Shepard was well and truly stunned. The way this armor moved _with_ her, as opposed to because of her, was simply astounding. She held the bog-standard MJOLNIR Mk. IVb helmet in her hands, looking at her reflection in the golden visor. The golden visor seemed to stare back, inviting her to don the helmet and see the world from a brand new perspective. She was happy to oblige her curiosity.

As she slid the helmet on over her head, she heard the faint hiss of the suit equalizing pressure levels, followed by a click as the helmet locked into place on the retention system. For a moment, she simply saw the world with a slightly darkened tint, then the HUD lit up, and the tint was gone; replaced by what was quite possibly the least-intrusive heads-up-display she had ever seen. Her tactical eyepiece from her time in the Corps had battlefield data filtered in, and mostly just displayed text and basic biometrics. This HUD, on the other hand, seemed almost like a pilot's display, but for a soldier.

In the top-center of her peripheral vision, she could see a basic biometric display, resting beneath what the technicians had described as her shield system monitor. She waited as the techs cycled her shields, and she watched them flare to life for a moment before becoming invisible once again. Just above the shield monitor was a basic compass system, which was intuitive enough. The top-right showed what she assumed to be an integrated ammunition monitor that not only checked her small arms, but her ordinance as well. There was a grenade counter as well, obviously reading out with a "0". The grenade indicator was in the top-left of her vision.

In the bottom-right of the HUD, she saw a monitoring system for the rest of her four-man team. Basic armor and biometric diagnostics flooded the display for a moment before settling down, showing the full shields and satisfactory health of her teammates as their armor was powered up. A-093 Ashley, A-041 Zaeed, and A-064 James all appeared on her HUD. She couldn't help but sigh at the sight of that last name.

Why Lieutenant-Commander Kurt had decided to put James Vega of all people on her team baffled her, especially after she gave him the full run-down of what happened to cause that… slight altercation during hand-to-hand drills. Of course, she knew better than to question the man that had turned her into a super-soldier. At the very least, with her recent promotion to a full Lieutenant, Vega answered to her.

As the last element of her HUD blinked on, she glanced down to the bottom-left of her visor. She spotted a variable-range motion tracker system. Its current range was set to twenty five meters, and it certainly seemed to work rather well. Everyone in the room appeared on the small tracker as a green dot, identifying them as a friendly. Her three team members appeared as blue dots among the green, however.

"Alright, Lieutenant…" One of the technicians that was monitoring her armor's systems began. "We're bringing your VISR system online."

Shepard watched as her vision shifted, and her helmet's systems engaged a mode that looked quite familiar to her. She had used the low-light setting on her eyepiece before, and this was quite similar, but apparently they had rolled out a newer system for the SPARTANs. This one had a low-light setting, an automatic IFF recognition system that linked directly to the neural implant that had been put into the base of her skull, real-time tactical and mission data that would be fed directly from the Battlenet, and highlighted all usable weaponry and equipment in the room in blue. Much to her surprise, this system was far from intrusive. It almost felt natural, but that was likely due to the neural implant. "This system can be keyed from your neural implant." Another technician explained, looking up from a datapad. "It also features a topographical map and navigation system, if applicable to the area of operations."

Shepard nodded in understanding, and tested the neural implant's connection to the system. Just as she thought about deactivating it, her vision returned to normal. She looked over to the technicians as they read over the diagnostics data from her armor, verifying that everything was functioning normally. This was still a strange sensation for her. She had stood at 5'7 prior to her augmentation. Now, she was 6'4 outside her MJOLNIR. With it, however, she stood at 6'9, towering over even the tallest of the technicians that were tending to her.

She had undergone a few weeks of physical training to get acclimated to her new reaction times, agility, strength, and body proportions, but it was all still a bit strange. The armor, however, made it all seem normal. It was quite clear that this armor was designed with the explicit intent of working with SPARTAN augmentations.

"Attention!" Mendez's voice boomed over the MJOLNIR labs, and every armored SPARTAN-III wheeled around and stood at attention, facing the man that had overseen their transformation. After a moment of silence, Mendez continued. "Congratulations, SPARTANs." For the first time, Shepard spotted a proud smile on the SCPO's face. He had referred to them as SPARTANs once before, after augmentation, but only now did it feel legitimate. "You've all managed to thoroughly impress me. I had my doubts about some of you…" Shepard couldn't help but feel that little quip was directed at her. Mendez kept sweeping his gaze over the ninety-three SPARTANs in the lab, so she couldn't be sure. "Alpha Company has exceeded all expectations, and I'm proud to call you SPARTANs. Only seven wash-outs is a record for the SPARTAN Program, you should be proud."

"You're not officially graduated, however." Mendez added. "We'll let the President have that honor. In three days, all of you will be sent to Earth for an official ceremony and public unveiling of the SPARTAN Program. From there, you'll receive your assignments." With a quick salute, returned by all of the SPARTANs in the lab, he finished his address. "Godspeed SPARTANs… enjoy a few days of leave. You've all earned it."

XXXXX

 **December 10, 2536; 1200 Hours**

 **Sydney, Earth (UEG Capitol Building)**

President Yevgeny stood before a crowd of thousands of civilians, dozens of camera drones, and hundreds of military officers of varying branch and rank. A few officers stood alongside him on the steps of the Capitol Building, most notably Fleet Admiral Cole, Admiral Rich, Colonel Ackerson, and Dr. Catherine Halsey. While Halsey had no formal military rank, he deemed it unfit for her to be excluded from the ceremony. Behind the assembled politicians, officers, and dignitaries of the UEG and UNSC stood one hundred and nineteen SPARTANs, all clad in their MJOLNIR Mk. IV armor, carrying ceremonial MA5 rifles in a parade attention stance. Only ninety three of them were SPARTAN-IIIs, the rest were SPARTAN-IIs that were not currently on-mission. The press was having an absolute field day with the armored behemoths, taking pictures and recording video of them.

After a moment, the President stepped forward and began speaking, his voice quickly silencing the crackling of cameras and sounds of excited press members. "Today, on December 10, 2536, I am proud to officially unveil the UNSC's first bold step forward in defensive measures: The SPARTANs." The President's voice echoed over the mass of spectators. "These brave men and women, volunteers from all corners of service in the United Nations Space Command, agreed to take part in one of the greatest strides Humanity has made in recent years. These SPARTANs, Alpha Company, are the first of many that will be created in defense of Earth and her colonies. All of them have valiantly chosen to serve, and we owe them a debt of gratitude. They are Humanity's guardians, shields against the forces that would seek to do us harm."

"We have Doctor Catherine Halsey to thank for these extraordinary individuals being granted this incredible opportunity. It is her research that has seen this program to completion, and the training of Senior Chief Petty Officer Franklin Mendez."

"Allow me to be the first to give these brave souls my sincerest thanks." The President added, closing his speech. "It is your unshakable conviction and devotion to Humanity that saw you enter the ranks of the SPARTANs, and it is those same qualities that will see you do extraordinary things. We are here to honor you today… you have gone above and beyond what was expected of you. You've ennobled all of us, and you have our thanks and our support."

XXXXX

 **December 10, 2158; 1207 Hours**

 **Citadel, Council Chambers**

"Are you certain?" Councilor Tevos asked, eyes darting between the video feed that was being transmitted from Earth. The UEG had recently lightened their regulations on media leaving their space, and Council Space now had access to the UEG's broadcast media, which was filtered and heavily monitored by the UNSC's Office of Naval Intelligence. The UNSC had even allowed some Council races to re-settle Aephus alongside Human colonists as a sort of olive branch to the Council. From the pictures Tevos had seen of Aephus, the formerly small colony world was now a veritable fortress. It made a certain kind of sense, it was only system _inside_ Human Space that contained a Mass Relay, so all traffic through the system was heavily monitored and controlled. The planet itself even had around a dozen orbital defense platforms, and a rather sizable defense fleet.

"Absolutely, Councilor." General Desolas Arterius nodded, his mandibles clenched down against his carapace. "Those things… those SPARTANs… they were the ones that led the boarding action against my ship."

"If that truly is the case, why would the UEG just now be going public with their existence?" Valern asked, genuinely confused. "We have already seen one on the Citadel."

"For all we know, that could have just been one of their marines in that armor." Sparatus sighed. Sparatus watched the live broadcast focus in on one of the SPARTANs, with an A-130 etched into her armored chestplate. "Or not…"

"There's so many…" Desolas continued, looking at the assembled SPARTANs.

"What can you tell us about these SPARTANs?" Valern asked, looking over to Desolas. "I understand that you've already been debriefed by the Hierarchy, but their reports were incredibly vague. Can you clear any of it up?"

Desolas shook his head. "All I know is that they move far faster than anything I've ever seen. One of them covered the sixty meters between me and the bulkhead in a few seconds. Their grip is like a vice…"

"Could it be their armor?" Valern wondered aloud.

"Quite likely." Desolas nodded. "That armor is obviously powered to some degree."

"STG agents on Aephus have been unable to access any meaningful information on their extranet. 'Waypoint', I believe they call it." Valern added. "It would seem that any information that is pulled from their network by a connection from Aephus is filtered."

"Those SPARTANs might be genetically modified." Sparatus added. "We've seen that their people undergo genetic therapies quite often for varying reasons, they could have managed to militarize the technology."

"A fair point…" Tevos conceded. "They tower over the others there. Even the female SPARTANs are taller than the tallest male in this broadcast. We need information on these SPARTANs…"

"I'll see what STG can do." Valern nodded.

XXXXX

 **December 11, 2536; 2321 Hours**

 **Onyx, Shield World Interior**

"Well… damn." Admiral Parangosky had thought she had seen everything the ancient Forerunners had to offer. She had entire divisions of ONI working on understanding the ancient technology that had seemingly been left behind for them to discover, but this… this dwarfed anything she'd seen before.

This artificial world contained within a Slipspace bubble seemed to stretch on forever. From where she had emerged, the distance between points was so great that it appeared as little more than a fuzzy image. Now she really knew why she was personally asked to come and inspect the findings. The rudimentary scans that her AI filtered into her neural implant measured the artificial world to be somewhere between two hundred and fifty million and three hundred and fifty million kilometers in diameter. If that were the case, this single world would have an area of quadrillions of square kilometers. Enough to house a population several orders of magnitude larger than Humanity's own, with room to spare.

She looked around, spotting the small ONI research station that had been set up. It was nothing more than a few prefab buildings at this point, but they were still hard at work. Survey teams were combing the surface of this world, looking for anything of note to inspect.

As she pulled her datapad out of her coat to inspect the message that had been sent her way. She couldn't help but feel an immense sensation of awe. It was an image captured by a survey team, transmitted back to the research station. It showed massive spires of Forerunner Alloy, stretching to the sky as testaments to their mastery of the universe. She recognized these silhouettes. They weren't buildings… these were starships. Almost completely intact, save for a few hundred thousand years of inactivity. It was only when she looked at this image that the true gravity of this find hit her. This was the single most important discovery in Human history.

As Parangosky looked up to the bright sun contained in the center of this Dyson Sphere, she knew that Humanity's place in the galaxy had been secured. Nothing short of the Forerunners returning could stop them now.

 **A/N:**

 **More Trailblazer binging led to another update. This story really is too fun.**

 **I realize that I glossed over a LOT with the SPARTAN IIIs, but it would take several chapters to cover everything about their training in enough depth, so here's hoping the highlights of training can serve as a happy medium. Also, Onyx hype.**

 **On a note regarding the future of this story, I've had a talk with some people from my Discord (Y'all should join, it gets pretty interesting, and a bit edgy sometimes.) about the possibility of pairings. I'm still a bit torn on the idea, but I'd like to know what you all think. Let me know either in a PM or a review if you do or don't want pairings to be a thing. If you do, be sure to include what pairing you'd like to see.**

 **Time for the review stuff:**

 **IZuikaku- I don't plan on including any more universes into this one, sorry. It's difficult enough to make two giant sci-fi franchises mesh well together without throwing more into the mix. I'll never understand how people manage to do those giant crossovers.**

 **Anquietas- I know that the SPARTAN-IIIs were around the same age as the IIs around the time of augmentation, but with the way their augmentation procedures were described, I figured that some decent-enough advances in tech had taken place to allow for older candidates to be selected.**

 **Hoanguxan2309- Will fix, comrade.**

 **An Sionnach Rua- You'll see, coming up next chapter.**

 **Coduss- Like you wouldn't believe, my dude.**

 **Zeus501- They have no idea what a NOVA is, but they know the UNSC uses it, and the sheer thought of it terrifies them.**

 **Werewolf36- Leviathans will play a role, you'll see.**

 **Reichenfaust- Cole is one of my favorite characters from Halo, I wouldn't be able to forgive myself if I didn't do him justice.**

 **A Caterpie- I'm still deciding on pairings, I'd love to hear what you guys think.**

 **Guest- The 2100s dates are from the perspective of the Council or a Council Race. Sorry, should have specified.**

 **VandenBZ- Sorry, but I don't really intend to include any more universes into this one. It'd be too much of a chore. After all, I'm only really good at writing sci-fi, not too great at fantasy or magical stuff like Dishonored. And the Sokolov character was more meant to be a reference not only to Dishonored, but Metal Gear Solid as well (Nikolai Sokolov from Snake Eater, because WHAT A THRILL).**

 **Kardikek- I wouldn't exactly call a SPARTAN-II "Minimal Security". Hell, a SPARTAN-II could probably kill every living thing on the Presidium in the matter of a few minutes. Hell, four of them managed to fight their way through a Covenant Cruiser, kill everything in their path, and escape with only a single casualty, all without shields or knowledge of the enemy they were fighting.**

 **As for the President leaking things like a "gossiping teenage girl", I doubt revealing the name of Earth is a breach of security in any sense of the word, or the Human population for that matter. I would be willing to concede him giving up the location of Earth if he actually did, which he did not. It wouldn't take a rocket surgeon to deduce that "hey, maybe those Humans come from that fuckhuge area of the galaxy we still have yet to explore…", after all.**

 **And if the point of discussion is the presence of a SPARTAN, that was the first time the Council had ever laid eyes on a SPARTAN. As far as they were aware, Alice was just a special forces operator in a fancy suit of armor, nothing out of the ordinary. OPSEC is still very much in place.**

 **Finally, thanks to everyone else who reviewed. You guys are awesome.**

 **Let me know what you think, everyone.**

 **As always,**

 **-TallYapflip**


	7. Chapter 6: The Will of the Gods

**Chapter 6: The Will of the Gods**

 **February 25, 2537; 1241 Hours**

 **Aephus, San Julien (Planetary Capital)**

Ish sighed as he leaned against the desk of his small apartment in the middle of the large Human settlement that had been built on Aephus. The city had become something of a boomtown in recent months, with many varying Council Species taking advantage of the UEG's olive branch and deciding to settle on a sparsely-populated world to build a new life. He was here for a different reason, however.

He had been hired to undertake intelligence-gathering operations by the Special Tasks Group as a deniable asset. Meaning loosely that if he fucked up, the Salarian Union would give him the finger and let the Humans put a bullet through his head. At least… that's what he imagined this illusive "Office of Naval Intelligence" would do to a spy.

He had been here for about three weeks, and just managed to get access to the Humans' strange variant of the Extranet. They had decided to call it "Waypoint" for some reason or another.

His thin fingers danced across the haptic keyboard for a few moments, establishing a connection to the Waypoint buoy in orbit. After getting access, he switched it over to a general search engine and decided to type something innocuous. He started with ' _UNSC_ '. After scanning through a rather in-depth explanation of what the UNSC was, he decided to bump it up a notch. He typed out ' _Earth_ '. He was met with a similarly in-depth article, but something was missing… The article on the UNSC had pictures to accompany it, while this one was just text. There appeared to be spaces where the pictures would generally be, and the little tab marked as 'Location' was simply blank.

Huffing, he brought up another network that he had heard something about. The Humans called it "ChatterNet." He had heard it was more secure, and far less-likely to be monitored by the UEG or the Colonial Administration. The very second he tapped the 'Enter' key, his screen shifted to a different interface. He keyed it into another search engine, deciding to type out something that would undoubtedly be interesting: " _SPARTANs._ "

Much to his surprise, right as he tapped the enter key, his screen blanked out, replaced by a simple phrase appearing in red lettering.

" **Access Denied** "

He was confused for a moment. He had seen a Human Marine access this same network to speak to his mate on another colony world with little issue. He didn't have much time to consider his confusion before a series of knocks sounded off against the door to his apartment. Assuming it to be another one of those door-to-door marketers, he ignored it. When the knocks returned with more force and an increased tempo, he stood up and made his way to the door.

He tried to access the small external camera that served as a peep-hole, but found it to not be working. Writing it off as a simple electronics failure, he unlocked the door and prepared to pull it open.

Before he could even reach out to the handle, the door flew open and knocked him to the ground. He fell to the floor in a heap, dazed. As his vision cleared, he looked up and found himself staring down the barrel of an M6 SOCOM magnum. The last thing he heard was the soft " _Pfft_ " of a suppressed round firing.

 **February 28; 2537 Hours**

 **Reach, FLEETCOM Complex**

Admiral Cole glanced over the message he had received from Admiral Parangosky. At first glance, it seemed to be a collection of survey data from the Onyx installation. Deeper within, he found specifications for a new breed of warship. It had been designed by ONI and their affiliates within Sinoviet Shipyards and the Materials Group, and was to be built in secret in the Sol System's Oort cloud, according to this message.

The vessel itself was nothing if not massive. It was specified to be nearly 5.7 kilometers long and over a kilometer tall. Specifications painted it as requiring four MACs boasting a power yield similar to an orbital SMAC, and a collective missile payload of almost 25,000 missiles. With no surprise, the funding had already been cleared after a secret Senate hearing over the Navy's allocated budget.

The project was codenamed "Project Shieldbreaker."

 **March 4, 2537; 1832 Hours**

 **Erszbat, 2.3km Outside Asthot Spaceport**

"UNSC _Shade_ , this is Sierra-057." Shepard spoke into the secure Battlenet connection with the Prowler that had inserted her team onto this Batarian colony. They had engaged their stealth systems, and were hiding in the asteroid field nearby. "Spaceport in sight, insurgents are moving in."

"Copy that, oh-five seven." ONI Captain Osman answered. "Your orders stand. Provide overwatch for insurgent activity in the area. Your presence is not to be known under any circumstance."

"Understood, Captain." Shepard acknowledged, closing down the connection and looking back down the scope of her rifle. Despite it still being in the early evening for UNSC Military Time, this world's day-night cycle was far longer than Earth's. The planet was shrouded in darkness, and the team of SPARTAN-IIIs were lying on the edge of a cliff, providing overwatch for a strike team of Batarian insurgents that were launching an attack on a spaceport.

Shepard could see the small platoon of Batarians moving up through the dense forest, their figures outlined in yellow by her helmet's IFF recognition system. There were twelve of them, armed with standard Council-grade weaponry and varying weights of body armor. Two of them were carrying heavy demolitions charges, one was carrying a missile launcher, and two were carrying grenade launchers. The reticle of her sniper rifle settled on the back of one's head. If she had it her way, his brains would be painted all over the ground in front of him, but she couldn't have it her way. ONI had other plans.

They had been on this colony for the past two months, and had assisted the local rebels in whatever way they could; mostly covertly, of course. Things like reconnaissance, assassinations, sabotage, and even a single instance of live-fire support. ONI had put its feelers out in Batarian space and found that this world, despite its affluence, was teeming with rebel elements. The Office was all-too happy to send Fireteam Able planetside to cause mayhem in whatever way they could.

"Cathka, you have five enemy foot-mobiles three hundred meters north of your position, proceed with caution." Shepard keyed into the local communications her team shared with the insurgents. ONI had handled contact with these rebels for the SPARTANs, offering to key them into the rebels' communications network so they could provide groundside support. Unsurprisingly, given the abysmal state of this resistance operation, they accepted with little argument.

"Got it, Human." Cathka, the local resistance leader answered. "Do you have a shot?"

"Negative, out of range." Shepard answered.

"Understood." Cathka answered, his sigh almost inaudible through the light crackling of the communicator. Shepard watched as the platoon of fourteen Batarians slinked through the woods, eventually creeping up behind the Hegemony Military patrol. He could see the insurgents activate their Omni-blades, taking down the five soldiers quietly and efficiently, just as Zaeed had advised them prior to the start of this operation. Seeing the five bodies fall limp on the ground, Shepard adjusted her scope and scanned the distant landscape, continuing to advise the insurgents on enemy movements.

XXXXX

 **March 7, 2537; 1235 Hours**

 **UNSC** ** _Point of No Return_** **, Conference Room (Reach High-Orbit)**

"Admiral, we've intercepted communications from the Salarian navy." Admiral Rich's voice came over the secure channel Parangosky had established with his flagship. "One of their survey vessels has gone dark on the fringes of their space in the Traverse. They sent back word that they had found something 'of immense archeological importance' before going dark."

"Prothean?" Parangosky asked.

"Unknown." Rich answered. There was a slight pause. "Wait… Salarian Admiralty has confirmed the presence of Slipspace rifts in the system where their survey vessel went dark. We have no fleet assets in the area."

Parangosky couldn't help but feel uneasy at this news. She immediately established a connection with the FLEETCOM complex on Reach's surface, Admiral Cole's voice joining Rich's a moment later. "Admiral Parangosky?" Cole asked.

"Admiral Rich, forward all intelligence regarding this to Admiral Cole immediately." Parangosky ordered.

"Aye." Rich answered.

Cole remained silent for a moment. Parangosky could practically feel the moment Cole received the data packet. "God…" Cole muttered. "I need to bring this to the President immediately. I'll send word for the 3rd Fleet to move to standby status."

XXXXX

 **March 9, 2537; 0300 Hours**

 **Sydney, Earth (President's Office)**

"President Yevgeny, incoming communication from the Citadel." Yevgeny glanced up to the small projection of his Smart A.I. that had appeared on his desk.

"Thank you, Jameson, put them through." Yevgeny responded, swiping away the reports from the Prowler Corps' recon mission into the Terminus.

"Connection secured." Yevgeny watched as the holographic projector shifted, eventually forming the images of Councilors Sparatus, Tevos, and Valern.

"President Yevgeny, thank you for answering so quickly." Tevos began, a look of concern on her face.

"Of course, Councilor." Yevgeny nodded. He already knew why they were calling, but they didn't need to know that. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"

"Do you know of any UNSC vessels operating in the Traverse, beyond your borders?" Tevos asked. "More specifically near the Salarian fringe colonies?"

"I do not." Yevgeny answered. "All UNSC vessels are currently within our borders. The nearest fleet to the Salarian borders is the UNSC _Shoshone_ and her escort fleet, which is docked at Aephus."

"Well… we've detected Slipspace rifts on the fringe of Salarian Space beyond the edge of the explored galaxy. A survey vessel was sent, and is presumed lost with all hands." Valern added.

"I can assure you that the UNSC has no active vessels in that region." Yevgeny answered. "I'm not about to send us back to war for nothing."

"True as that may be, you must understand our measured caution." Sparatus retorted.

"What we initially contacted you for…" Tevos interjected, preceding the argument that would inevitably follow Sparatus' words. "We wished to ask for your assistance in determining _what_ exactly caused the survey vessel to go dark."

"It's already been cleared with the Dalatrass." Valern added. "We do not have any fleets in the area to spare."

Yevgeny gave a fake sigh. "Alright, I'll relay the order for the _Shoshone_ 's captain to depart immediately."

"There is another matter." Tevos added. "A Spectre was aboard that survey vessel. Spectre Nihlus Kryik. If at all possible, should he be alive, could you recover him alongside any other survivors?"

"The crew will do their best." Yevgeny nodded.

XXXXX

 **March 15, 2537; 0630 Hours**

 **UNSC** ** _Shoshone_** **, Bridge (Slipstream Space)**

"Captain, we're exiting the Slipstream now." Keyes glanced over to the navigations officer. " _Paris, Forward Unto Dawn, In Amber Clad, Moscow, Pillar of Autumn_ , and _Heracles_ report mission-ready status."

"Good, bring the ship to Combat Alert Bravo, all hands to their stations." Keyes answered, watching as the Slipspace drive's readout on his command console flared up, tearing a hole back into real-space and allowing the Halcyon-class Cruiser to slip through. Keyes didn't need the sensors readings to see what lay before his small battle group.

The relatively empty star system, boasting a young star surrounded by proto-planets, was home to a massive graveyard of starship hulls. All of the ships, with the exception of one, shared an identical design philosophy. Keyes spotted the small Salarian Frigate first, as it was nearest to his point of exit. The subspace sensor readout listed it as suffering from a positively _massive_ amount of damage. The only reason he could even identify it as the missing Salarian ship was due to the still-intact IFF that was intermittently pinging his console. The ship itself was a twisted, broken mass of alloyed metal drifting in hundreds of pieces. The rest of the ships, however, were an unknown.

There were forty of them, all purple-tinted and elegantly curved. If starships could be art, then these ships were masterpieces. Elegant curves seemed to twist and form into a charred and blackened hull as the ships drifted silently through the void. "Sensors…" Keyes began, looking out at the sight before him in awe. "What the hell am I looking at?"

"Unknown, sir." The Sensors Ensign explained, frantically swiping his hands across his console as he tried to make heads or tails of the data before him. "Readings confirm trace Hawking Radiation in the system, unknown time of exit."

"Captain, I'm receiving a ping from one of the larger vessels!" The Comms officer shouted across the bridge. "It's a looping transmission… I've never seen a language like this before."

Keyes sighed, looking out at the graveyard before him. With a quick swipe across the command console, he brought up his encrypted comms with FLEETCOM. "Keyes to FLEETCOM Alpha." He began.

"Go ahead, Captain." Cole was the one to answer him, his voice level and calm. "What did you find?"

"Council survey vessel located…" Keyes answered, choosing his next words carefully. "It appears they made first contact with an unknown race."

There was a momentary pause over the comms. "Say again, Captain?" Cole asked, not quite believing Keyes' assessment. "Did you say 'First Contact'?"

"Aye sir." Keyes nodded, despite the comms being purely audio. "Unknown vessel classifications, all disabled and destroyed. We're picking up a looping comms ping from one of the larger vessels in the unknown formation, requesting further orders."

"I'm dispatching vessels from Harvest to reinforce, get personnel aboard and learn what you can." Cole ordered.

"Understood, sir." Keyes nodded again.

"Update me the instant the situation changes." Cole finished. "Cole, out."

XXXXX

 **March 15, 2537; 0710 Hours**

 **UNSC** ** _Shoshone_** **, Bridge (Uncharted System)**

"Damage report?" Keyes asked, seeing that Sensors had finished their scan of the Salarian vessel.

"I'm detecting high-temperature burns all across the remaining hull plating, Sir." The ensign responded. "The caving-in plating on the hull almost seems like a kinetic impact, though…"

"Shit…" Keyes muttered, sighing. Just after Sensors had finished with his description of damages done to his vessels, his communications officer spoke out again.

"Captain, Blue team is aboard the vessel!" She declared. "They're linking their HUDs to your display now."

"Put it through." Keyes nodded.

Keyes looked back down to his command console, greeted by the sight of a darkened starship interior as seen through the eyes of Blue Team's leader, SPARTAN 117. Debris was scattered across the large hangar bay that they had landed in, scorch marks occasionally dotting the walls and floor. They didn't look like external battle damage… they almost look like a firefight had taken place _inside_ the ship. "Captain Keyes…" John's calm voice came over his console. "Blue Team is aboard, no signs of life."

"Understood, Master Chief." Keyes answered, watching as he swept over the large hangar with his eyes, blue reticle following his movements. "The comms ping is originating in the center of the vessel, forwarding data to your HUD."

"Copy." Chief acknowledged, bringing his rifle up to his shoulder and making a quick open-hand motion with his left hand, signaling the rest of Blue Team to follow him. "Blue Team, on me. Tactical spacing."

"Sensors, start scanning the most-intact alien vessels immediately." Keyes ordered. "Forward all data to my console."

"Aye, sir!" Sensors acknowledged.

Keyes turned his attention back to the console, watching the SPARTANs move through the darkened halls of the alien vessel. The only thing allowing Keyes to make any sense of the video feed was the four sets of helmet lights occasionally darting across the feed as the SPARTANs scanned their general area.

XXXXX

 **March 15, 2537; 0756 Hours**

 **Unknown Vessel Interior, 603 Meters From Comms Ping**

Chief grunted as he and Fred worked to force the strange door open. The three-part portal seemed to shift into the bottom two corners and the top of the frame simultaneously. The occasional purple light flickered on every door they passed, showing that there was at least some power still surging through the ship's systems.

The entire time that they had been aboard, their motion trackers remained eerily silent. The only pings any of the four SPARTANs received were the other members of the team, and it was unsettling.

As Chief and Fred finished forcing the door open, he shined his light down the hall once again. For the first time in their trek, Chief found himself looking at something other than the dull purple walls of the vessel. "Captain, are you seeing this?" Chief asked, keeping his gaze firmly fixed on the crumpled mass of alien before him.

The creature was tall, even taller than a SPARTAN. Its skin was a leathery-looking grey, parts of it seeming to be charred black. Its elongated neck ended in a quad-mandible head that hung slack. Its body was adorned with what must have been armor, painted a bright blue but stained by deep indigo blood. One of its hands was clutching a strange object, appearing as a curved blue implement with a small interface on one side.

"Christ…" Was all Keyes could manage. "Continue to your objective, ONI Analysts investigate this once the fleet arrives."

"Understood." Chief acknowledged, nodding for Blue Team to continue to their objective. "Linda, mark this location."

"Copy." Linda nodded.

XXXXX

 **March 15, 2537; 0823 Hours**

 **Unknown Vessel Interior, 43 Meters From Comms Ping**

"Captain, we have a motion contact through this door, approximately five meters from the source of the ping." Chief explained into his comms unit. "How should we proceed?"

"Cautiously." Keyes explained. "Fleet's an hour out, SPARTAN. I'd like to avoid another war."

"Copy." Chief nodded.

He looked to the door, which was the first one they had encountered where the indigo lights on its surface remained solid and strong. It didn't take a scientist to reason that this door was still operational. They had seen more and more bodies as they progressed further and further into the ship, stumbling across a multitude of species in the process. Some were stocky and short, wearing what appeared to be a sort of respirator mask; others were lithe and avian-looking. The most stand-out of them, though, was the powerfully tall creature they had stumbled upon first. Somehow, this ship still had relatively weak artificial gravity and life support. Sensors had confirmed that the vessel, beyond that, was completely inert.

Chief waved his hand forward, walking towards the interface. Much to his surprise, the interface seemed to be a fruitless endeavor. The door simply opened as they approached, likely triggered by their proximity.

As the door slid open with a soft ping, the four SPARTANs found themselves looking into what appeared to be the ship's command center. There was an elevated platform sitting in the center of the room, holographic glyphs flickering across the edge. There was one of the tall, mandibled creatures pacing back and forth across the platform. Unlike the bodies of the others, he was clad in a golden armor. The alien's eyes darted in the SPARTANs' direction as the door opened. It seemed surprised for a moment, then pointed one of the strange blue implements at them.

In response, all four of the SPARTANs raised their respective weapons. "Hold fire!" Chief ordered into his comms unit. He held up a hand in what he hoped to be a gesture of peace. The alien seemed to relax for a moment, perceptive gold eyes darting between the four SPARTANs before it. A look that Chief could only describe as… recognition crossed its eyes and its mandibles clicked together. It lowered its weapon, allowing it to lock onto its leg armor.

"Humans…" It began, speaking in perfect UEG-base English. In any other situation, Chief would've found Captain Keyes' sputtering cough almost funny. "Not quite what I was expecting."

"You know what we are?" Chief began, letting the grip on his MA5 slack a bit. He was still prepared to put this alien down, but it apparently had the sense not to mindlessly attack the SPARTANs.

"Indeed…" The creature nodded, its tone practiced and calm. It spoke with a certain… ethereal perfection. Its voice was a deep baritone, somehow managing to form English words without the proper equipment for it. "Might I know your names?"

"John-117." Chief answered.

"Kelly-087." Kelly answered.

"Fredrick-104." Fred answered.

"Linda-058." Linda answered.

"Interesting…" It mused. "I am Fleetmaster Thel'Vadam. I am afraid you have caught my fleet in a rather… precarious situation."

 **A/N:**

 **It's that time again, my friends. Sorry for the cliffhanger, but this needed to be done ;).**

 **T, you guys are awesome. Literally 6 chapters in and we're already over 800 follows. Now that I'm done rewriting my Halo/RWBY story, I'll be able to update my other fics more regularly.**

 **And since it's a bit hard to track review responses for the love interest question, I've put a poll up on my profile for you guys to vote on. It looks like a few people have already voted, but I'd like to get some thoughts from everyone that didn't know about it. And since I'm sure there's more options than the ones I've listed in the poll, feel free to vote for the last option in it and shoot me a PM with the character you'd like to see, along with some basic reasoning for it. If it's good enough, I MIGHT consider moving away from the listed options.**

 **Now, review response time:**

 **MEleesmasher- I do have quite the affinity for energy weapons.**

 **Commissar Critical- Generally, I'd find myself in agreement with you. That's part of the reason I was so iffy on the idea to begin with, and decided to leave it up to a poll. Bear in mind for anyone reading this, it's not going to be the traditional ME pairing where they have a few lines of dialogue over a few chapters and suddenly decide to bang (We'll bang, okay?), it'll be a SLOW slow burn with (hopefully) good buildup to it.**

 **RedBarchetta28- I loved this idea so much I decided to borrow it and amend it a bit. Thanks :D.**

 **Kaiser0klovos- The SPARTAN-IIIs in this story are a bit more comparable to the SPARTAN-IVs in canon. They derive most of their abilities from the armor, not the augmentations. Sure, they're tougher and faster than the average Human, but a SPARTAN II without the armor would absolutely crush a III without the armor.**

 **Kurogane7- I've always preferred the idea of the Forerunners more-closely resembling Humans or, like you said, the Craftworld Eldar. I didn't really the direction 343 decided to take with their design.**

 **Hoangxuan2309- I'll be updating Mantle soon (tm), I've had a chapter for that in the works for a while now, but I just can't seem to get it right.**

 **SmokeTinyTom- Goddamnit, Tom.**

 **SierraB.N312- I hope the ending here satisfied the first part of the question. And yes, I'll be including some of the canon IIIs a bit later.**

 **Tony Nylund- I agree with you entirely. It's always been heavily implied in the Halo universe that Humanity has basically perfected coilguns for their starships. I mean, for god's sake, the Orbital SMAC could accelerate a 3,000 ton slug at 4% light speed. That's DISGUSTINGLY powerful. The Council certainly has the advantage in fire rate, but that's about it.**

 **DarkRising32- Since it's still relatively early in MJOLNIR's life cycle, most of the armor is mostly base-line Mk. IV. Some of the SPARTAN IIs have modifications done, but the IIIs are all rocking the base MJOLNIR right now.**

 **Knightly Monkey King- Trust me, Shepard and her team will be NOTHING like their ME counterparts (Other than maybe Zaeed, since he's definitely the best-fit for a battle hardened Marine or ODST). As it stands, right now the story's going to be split between two points of view: Shepard and the Chief.**

 **Time Reflects- Don't worry, I have plans.**

 **Coduss- The shift for the SPARTAN IIIs was an intentional change. They're more in-line with the IVs, in the sense that most of their abilities are derived from the armor as opposed to the augmentations. And I definitely agree with the whole Mendez not using that against Shepard, DIs aren't THAT awful. Sure, they'll get in your face and scream at you, but doing something like that to a recruit that has a very good chance of winding up as a supersoldier might not be a great idea.**

 **Belnonm- Sure, the idea of not going into total war right off the bat might make sense for modern nation. The primary issue is that the UNSC had NO FUCKING IDEA what drove the Turians to engage them. It could have just as easily been rampant xenophobia as it could have been a misunderstanding. It's a special kind of naivety to assume that an alien race is going to be absolutely peaceful, and open to diplomacy after firing on a ship that was attempting contact. And since the UNSC has to defend 800 colony worlds, they were FAR from total war. It's never explicitly stated how large the UNSC fleet was prior to the H/C War, but context clues from Fall of Reach hint at the combined UNSC/CMA Fleet being somewhere around 25-30 thousand ships (mostly corvettes, frigates, and destroyers). Council Mass Drivers, by and large, would be notably weaker than UNSC MACs as well. We're talking frigates shooting 600-ton slugs at 30,000 m/s. Cruisers in the UNSC fleet were at least 1% light speed, and SMACs like the ones mounted on the Supercarriers and ODPs were thousands of tons accelerated to 4% light speed. Mass Effect's primary advantage is rate of fire.**

 **Guest- Anger had nothing to do with that. Sure, Vega pissed her off, but he was also distracted. Ignoring the fact that a monitored fight purely for the sake of martial arts is far different than military hand-to-hand combat instruction, if you watch any martial arts video, you'll also see that distractions can get your ass handed to you.**

 **Tamagat- Oh don't worry, it's coming.**

 **Halocanon- Did someone say Covenant?**

 **Wolfman217- Oh, I'm absolutely with you that any fic pairing the Chief with anything is just…** ** _wrong_** **. It doesn't make any sense for a SPARTAN II, but for a III (like the IVs from canon) it would make a bit more sense. They've gone through most of their development, including puberty. You could kinda see it with DeMarco and Palmer in Spartan Ops in Halo 4.**

 **H509- While I agree that 40 billion is a bit low for Humanity in the 26** **th** **century, I can also see why. If you take into account that Humanity didn't have FTL capabilities until 2291, that means they had 260 or so years between the colonization rush and the Human Covenant War. I could see the 85 billion number if it was actually 500 years of colonization, but population has this rather nasty habit of reaching equilibrium. Kurzgesagt actually has a great video on why this happens.**

 **Guest- I'll be showing what happened to the missing SPARTANs relatively soon. All in due time.**

 **Kaiser Chris- All will be explained in due time.**

 **As always, love the reviews you guys leave. A huge thank you to all of you guys for sticking with my god-awful schedule.**

 **-TallYapflip**


	8. Chapter 7: Shadow Conflict

**Chapter 7: Shadow Conflict**

 **March 15, 2537; 1851 Hours**

 **Citadel, Council Chambers**

The Councilors watched as the transmission from UEG Space was cleared by their security systems. They had expected an update, but not quite like this. Instead of President Yevgeny's holographic avatar appearing in the room, there was a Human woman with paler skin. She had a strange, all-grey uniform that appeared completely un-marked… save for the innocuous UNSC emblem on her chest. "You'll have to pardon the slight change in proceedings." She began, hands clasped neatly behind her back. "President Yevgeny is currently tied-up in the Senate."

"That's quite alright…" Tevos began, jumping in before Sparatus could voice his obvious irritation with getting the 'run-around,' as he described it, from the UNSC. "Did you have an update on the status of the survey vessel, Miss…?"

"Parangosky." She answered. "Captain Keyes has confirmed the destruction of the Salarian survey vessel, lost with all hands. The cause of destruction is unknown at this time. Kinetic impacts along the hull suggest the ship was attacked."

"Are there any probable culprits?" Valern asked. "Do you have any physical data?"

"Indeed, we do." Parangosky nodded, tapping at an invisible display for a moment as she transferred data over the communications channel. She watched as the councilors looked down to their terminals, reading over the data that ONI transferred their way. The data was… mostly correct. There were a few important details missing, namely the thermal damage done to the ship's plating. She kept a straight face as she watched Sparatus sigh.

"Were you able to recover any bodies?" Sparatus asked, looking to her avatar.

"No…" Parangosky shook her head. "All personnel onboard are presumed lost to the vacuum."

Valern shook his head. "Stripped hull plating, kinetic impacts, missing computer equipment… it definitely suggests Terminus pirates."

"What of the Slipspace signatures that were detected there?" Sparatus asked.

"Faint traces of Hawking Radiation were detected." Parangosky nodded. "The exit of our vessels caused too much interference for a positive read on approximate time of transit if it was a Slipspace drive. Based on trade registry data, it's likely that this Hawking Radiation originated from a Colonial Administration Authority transport vessel that was passing through the region while en-route to Aephus from Mannovai. This ship's manifest and transit route are attached to the documentation I transferred over."

She watched again as the Councilors looked over the report of the CAA vessel's route. While it was true that, at this exact time, a CAA vessel was transporting supplies and personnel from Mannovai to Aephus, the Slipstream exit in this system was a fabrication. The Councilors didn't need to know that.

Tevos sighed, seeing that this was likely just a pirate raid against a survey vessel. "Thank you, Miss Parangosky. We apologize for bringing the UNSC into such an innocuous issue."

Parangosky nodded. "Was there anything else you needed from me?"

"That's all… thank you." Tevos shook her head.

With little fanfare, Parangosky shut down the communication. She turned around, addressing Admiral Cole from a different comms unit. "Admiral Cole, has Captain Keyes reported in?"

"Affirmative." Cole nodded. "These 'Sangheili' creatures are indeed passive to Humanity. The one recovered by SPARTAN Blue Team, Thel'Vadum, has provided us with a significant amount of data regarding his people. They are currently in a state of war against a coalition of aliens known as The Covenant. The Sangheili were, not long ago, a member of this Covenant. He described this civil war as 'A Great Schism'."

"Did he provide reasoning for the war?" Parangosky asked.

"Yes." Cole nodded. "A Sangheili Fleetmaster by the name of Rtas'Vadum discovered a Forerunner artifact in orbit of a Gas Giant..."

Parangosky glanced down to the data that had been transferred to her from Cole's flagship. She didn't even need to think about it, she already knew what it was. It was a massive Forerunner construct. It was a ring world, sitting above a gas giant. "A Halo…" Parangosky sighed. She had seen reference to these in the Shield World's databanks. They were just as amazing as she imagined.

"Rtas apparently engaged in discussion with something known as a 'Monitor', which the Covenant revere as holy oracles." Cole continued. "The Covenant believe in something they call 'The Great Journey', which is initiated by these Halo Rings. Apparently, they believe that it will begin their ascension to godhood. According to Thel, the Monitor explained the _actual_ function of the Halo ring."

"And this caused the civil war?" Parangosky asked, cocking an eyebrow.

"According to Covenant doctrine, everything from an Oracle is to be considered truth." Cole explained. "Only issue is that this Oracle in particular disproved the Great Journey. According to Thel, the 'Prophets', or spiritual leaders of the Covenant, attempted to kill Rtas to hide the truth. It failed, and the Sangheili have renounced their membership to the Covenant, along with another species: The Unggoy, the small, stocky aliens."

"That doesn't explain how this alien could speak fluent English." Parangosky sighed.

"The Prophets have apparently known of our existence for quite some time." Cole explained. "They were planning to make first contact with us… just as the Sangheili and Unggoy revolted. It also seems that, unknowingly, the Sangheili saved us from a war."

"How so?" Parangosky asked.

"The Covenant have these devices known as Luminaries, which track Forerunner technology." Cole explained. "The Covenant vessel that was charged with making first contact with us registered _Humanity_ on its Luminaries. When Thel's fleet dug through the databanks of this vessel after they destroyed it, they found that the Prophets issued an order describing us as 'an affront to the Great Journey' and mentioning that 'our destruction is the will of the gods, and the Covenant are their instrument'." Cole finished.

"And this war?" Parangosky asked. "Is there a clear victor?"

"Not yet." Cole shook his head. "It's largely been a stalemate. But it seems that Thel is requesting that Captain Keyes transport him back to their Homeworld."

"Grant his request…" Parangosky nodded.

XXXXX

 **March 15, 2537; 1930 Hours**

 **UNSC** ** _Shoshone,_** **Bridge**

Keyes watched as his new orders filtered across his command console, clearing him to dispatch a vessel to the coordinates of the Sangheili homeworld. He looked up to the viewport, seeing the Refit stations and their escort fleets beginning to prepare the hulls of the Sangheili vessels for transport away from here. "Your assistance is greatly appreciated, Captain." Keyes heard Thel's baritone voice from behind him. John and Kelly stood on either side of him, simply for the sake of formality.

"Based on what you told me, I should be thanking you." Keyes said, swiping a hand across the interface before turning around. "HIGHCOM has granted your request, we'll be bringing you back to your homeworld. A transport is waiting in the hangar; it'll take you to your ride home."

"Your assistance is greatly appreciated, Captain Keyes." Thel bowed his head. "If possible, I would like to send emissaries back with your vessel. This would allow us to open more… formal relations."

"I'll clear it with HIGHCOM. You'll have your answer by the time you arrive on your world." Keyes nodded, turning to his console for a moment. " _UNSC Paris_ , this is Captain Keyes. HVT is en-route to your vessel for transport. Transmitting jump coordinates now."

"Acknowledged, Captain." The _Paris_ ' Commander responded. Given the distance from here to Sangheilios, Keyes was immensely grateful for the upgraded Slipspace Drives that were being distributed through the fleet.

"Blue Team, escort Thel to the Hangar." Keyes turned to the SPARTAN IIs, who gave a curt nod.

"You have my thanks, Captain." Thel bowed his head again. "I look forward to future meetings… hopefully under better circumstances."

"Likewise." Keyes nodded, returning Thel's bow as he turned to leave.

As the SPARTANs and Sangheili left the bridge, a comms ping appeared on Keyes' console. It was coming from an ONI Prowler. Unsurprisingly, the message was marked as a Priority-1. As he accepted the comm from his end, he saw the familiar face of Serin Osman appear on his console. "Captain Keyes…" She began, her tone carrying that practiced calm that ONI was so infamous for. "We've discovered the archeological find that the Salarian communique mentioned. Analysis of the survey vessel's comms data suggests that the vessel did not have time to give its location to the Council before its destruction. They did, however, leave an away team on this facility."

Keyes watched as sensor data flooded his console, showing a powerful energy signature from the surface of an asteroid in this system. His clearance with the Office allowed him to look over a portion of the data that would generally be restricted… this facility was of Forerunner origin. "Notify SPARTAN Blue Team that they have a new mission: secure that facility and leave no survivors."

"Understood, ma'am." Keyes nodded. "Keyes, out."

XXXXX

 **March 15, 2537; 2031 Hours**

 **Uncharted System, UNSC Pelican A-11381**

Chief jolted slightly as the Pelican touched down on the surface of the small asteroid. He watched as all of the ODSTs that had been sent along with Blue Team pressurized their gear and prepared to disembark.

After the rear of the Pelican had vented its atmosphere, the rear ramp silently lowered and the twelve occupants of the dropship stood up and stepped onto the surface of the asteroid. Thankfully, the asteroid was comprised almost entirely of metals, allowing the magnetic boots of the ODST BDUs and the MJOLNIR to make a connection. With a quick hand-motion, Chief began leading the platoon of SPARTANs and ODSTs towards the nearby Forerunner structure that seemed to be poking out of the surface of the asteroid. The structure itself didn't appear to be a building, it seemed to just be a mass of Forerunner Alloy jutting from the ground. There was undoubtedly more beneath the surface of the asteroid, but that was for ONI to figure out.

As they approached, Chief noted a pair of Council dropships that were set down near the entrance of the facility, with a few Salarians and a Turian standing around the area. Due to the rotation of the asteroid, and the intense interference from the recent Slipspace jumps, their comms were likely still scrambled.

Chief held up a closed fist, dropping to one knee and bringing his Battle Rifle up to his shoulder. The rest of the platoon mirrored him, with Linda and a pair of ODST snipers deploying their bipods on a rocky outcropping. As he glanced around, seeing the ready pings pop up on his HUD, he spoke into the closed comms. "All-clear, fire at will." Chief ordered, sending a burst downrange with his Battle Rifle.

Three heavy rounds speared through the silent void of space from the three sniper rifles, each of them dropping a Salarian as the rounds easily punctured their suits. A hail of 9.5mm rounds from Chief's Battle Rifle slammed into the kinetic barriers of the Turian, quickly overloading them and sending him to the ground as a final burst speared through his armored carapace. The few surviving Salarians turned and attempted to return fire with their own weapons, all to no avail. Another salvo from the three snipers sent the remaining Salarians to the ground.

After waiting a moment, and seeing no further movement, Chief stood upright and keyed into the _Shoshone_ 's comms. "Sierra-117 to _Shoshone_ , perimeter secured. Awaiting ONI analysts at our location."

"Acknowledged, 117." Keyes responded. "Hold position until the ONI team arrives."

XXXXX

 **March 17, 2537; 1230 Hours**

 **UNSC** ** _Point of No Return_** **, Conference Room (Reach High-Orbit)**

Parangosky was patiently awaiting the arrival of the first of these alien vessels. They would be arriving in a few days' time, but she at least had an update from her protégé to keep her thoroughly invested in the happenings in the Terminus.

 _Adm. Parangosky,_

 _Function of Forerunner artifact confirmed as a data repository. Shows significant signs of tampering by Council away team. Most of facility's data corrupted, two sets of coordinates on-board as well as concerning intel. It seems that Protheans held knowledge of the Forerunners, Prothean monitoring equipment was found on the asteroid. Monitoring equipment connects to a wider network that ends on Mars. Relevant data has been attached. Coordinates recovered from Forerunner data stores match Onyx, the other is deep within uncharted space. Relevant data has been attached to this report._

 _Recovered data logs from Council team suggest desperation, attempting to use facility to contact the Citadel to no effect. Spectre Nihlus confirmed to be among those dispatched by SPARTAN Blue Team. All Council assets have been disposed of per naval code 112-6771-6._

 _Mission Complete._

 _-Cpt. S Osman_

Parangosky swiped a hand across her datapad, switching over to the Mars data. It did indeed show a Prothean information network that connected to Mars, and it seemed that there was a set of coordinates attached to it. It was buried nearly a kilometer beneath the Martian surface. She made a mental note to dispatch a Section III team as soon as possible.

After spending the time to read over the entirety of her protégé's report, Parangosky allowed herself a small smirk. Agents had recently confirmed that the Council was not moving any fleets towards this system anytime soon, giving ONI more than enough time to clear out any… sensitive equipment. Just in case the order was handed out manually, the bulk of the materials had already been moved into dark space, where they could be retrieved in the future without drawing attention. All that was left now was to wait for the alien technology to arrive over Onyx.

XXXXX

 **March 20, 2537; 1601 Hours**

 **UNSC** ** _Shade_** **, Edge of Vular System**

Shepard grabbed her Batarian prisoner by the back of his neck, hoisting him to his feet in the rear of the Pelican. She had no idea what ONI had ordered her team back to the Prowler, but she was just happy that her target had been apprehended and the insurgents had made enough headway to operate alone for a time.

As the rear of the transport hissed open, the Batarian was greeted by the sight of a Prowler's small hangar. Awaiting the SPARTAN Fireteam was a small collection of ONISEC Operatives along with the _Shade_ 's new captain. For whatever reason, the vessel had been recalled for just under a week. When it returned, Shepard was surprised to be getting orders from the woman standing before her. She'd likely never get her answer, it _was_ ONI after all.

"Excellent work, Sierra-057." ONI Agent Lawson gave her a curt nod as she led the Batarian minister out of the Pelican with Williams. "Minister Tarak, you and I will be having a _very_ long discussion." She looked back to the ONISEC personnel. "Agents, get him out of my sight."

"Aye, ma'am." One of the black-clad ONI operators affirmed, taking a few steps towards the Minister with three other operatives. As they led the Minister across the small hangar bay, Lawson turned to the four SPARTANs.

"SPARTANs, report to the briefing room immediately." She ordered. "Looks like we just made First Contact."

"First contact?" Vega asked, his Mk IVb helmet cocking to the side slightly.

"Indeed, Petty Officer." Lawson nodded. "We've been reassigned to combat operations at the request of our new… allies. I'll brief you in full in the briefing room."

 **A/N:**

 **Kept you waiting, huh?**

 **A bit on the shorter side, my apologies. Expect** **the next chapter to be far longer**

 **Review time!**

 **Gamegamer1: Holy fuck, Halo does have Medi-Gel… well, consider me wrong in that statement.**

 **Airmailmrcool: I'll expand on what's happened to the missing SPARTAN IIs soon.**

 **Alanvaladez: I'm going off the original canon, in which the Prophets had monitored mankind for some time. In Bungie's canon, the prophets contacted Humanity in English.**

 **Fernix13: The 40 billion figure actually comes from Halo canon, which confuses the shit out of me, but I'm rolling with it for the sake of some continuity with canon.**

 **Aderran: It was always my understanding that secondary relays were notably smaller than primary ones. I haven't seen any canon materials to contradict this, so I'll just keep rolling with it unless something proves it wrong.**

 **Guest: C'mon, I can go throwing a Halo ring in here this early. That'd just be unfair.**

 **Golden Age Guest(s): Believe it or not, civilizations can go through multiple golden ages. Also, golden age is not a measure of technological progress. The bronze age is referred to as such due to the fact that much of early Human metallurgy consisted of bronzeworking. Same goes for the Iron and Steel ages. Technological ages are determined by the technology that defines the era. Hence why the 1940s-1990s are referred to as the "Atomic Age".**

 **64: Good to see that reading comprehension is alive and well /s.**

 **WarFlower: As much as I personally love GarrusxFemShep, it wouldn't really fit for the tone of this story. I did mull the idea around in my head for a while, but ultimately decided against it for the whole "Cold War" that's going on between the Council and UEG.**

 **Abraxas01: It's always confused me that NCOs in Halo were referred to as "Sir" (Best example being the Halo 2 scene where Johnson's dropping off the Scorpion for Chief), so I just chalked it up to a difference in military culture. Having thought about it, that'll definitely be the last time it happens, since Bungie's gone on-record as saying the UNSC Marines are basically just the U.S. Marines in space.**

 **Kurogane7: I'm inclined to agree with the whole SPARTAN II thing. Suppressing your basic humanity for years would eventually break you. Even so, it's just hard to imagine the Chief being at all good at normal human things.**

 **The Mexican Taco Overlord: I do love me some ONI antics.**

 **Zeus501: Oh, those Forerunner ships are in anything BUT working order. It'll still take years to understand how they work, but they're still available for Section III's studies.**

 **Lord of Enlightenment: In terms of timeline, this is during the canon height of the Human-Covenant War.**


	9. Chapter 8: The Schism

**Chapter 8: The Schism**

 **April 12, 2537; 2201 Hours**

 **Knossos System (Deep Space), _UNSC All Under Heaven_**

"Christ, Vega…" Ashley sighed, looking up from the datapad containing their mission briefing. "Do you do literally _anything_ other than pull-ups?"

"Yeah…" Zaeed nodded. "Keep at that and you'll wind up lookin' like a fuckin' chicken below the belt."

"Hey, gotta keep up with the gains." Vega smirked, pulling his chin over the bar for the hundredth time.

"We're SPARTANs, you fuckin' meathead." Zaeed deadpanned, tossing his datapad onto his bunk, having read enough. To say that Fireteam Able was going stir-crazy would be an understatement. Agent Lawson had already briefed them on the conflict against the Covenant, and they had been assigned to a second-line defensive action; much to the dismay of the SPARTAN team.

Their role, if it came down to it, was to prevent any potential breakthroughs by the Covenant fleets. As it stood, the UEG couldn't afford for the Covenant to be known to the rest of the galaxy quite yet, not with the tensions between the UEG and Batarians. The last thing they needed was to fight a two or three-front war.

The _Shade_ , along with about a half-dozen other Prowlers and a carrier group were assigned to the region of the galaxy just bordering the Orion Arm. They'd play two pivotal roles in the conflict: keeping the Covenant out of the rest of the galaxy, and keeping the rest of the galaxy from discovering the Covenant. Of course, that did little to keep the SPARTANs entertained.

"You could at least keep your shirt on, Vega." Shepard piped up, flipping through the various updates to their mission. Her position as a SPARTAN fireteam leader granted her access to far more detail on the operation, even if all of the information was comms chatter from a Council archeological dig down on one of the nearby planet's surface. Apparently one of their mining companies found remnants of Prothean technology.

"What, and deny you and Ash a good show?" Vega smirked again. "Never."

Shepard and Ashley both scoffed at around the same time. Despite their… rough start, Shepard and Vega had managed to put their little altercation during training behind them. A few months operating on a Batarian world apparently had a tendency to make you overlook little annoyances.

 **April 13, 2537; 1931 Hours**

 **Urs System, Sanghelios (Nuusra)**

John gave a quick signal with his hand to the small strike team of Sangheili commandos that were joining Blue Team on their operation. The orbital battle was still raging on, but the _Pillar of Autumn_ had managed to insert a company of ODSTs and SPARTAN Blue Team just outside a major city on Sanghelios.

Their alien allies had been extraordinarily lucky. One of the Covenant's Hierarchs had been present on Sanghelios for the breakout of the Schism: The Prophet of Mercy. Their standing orders were to eliminate this Prophet.

The Sangheili Rangers crept up behind Blue Team, taking cover behind a collapsed pillar that had once held up a massive arch. Just before them was a large temple, which served as the Prophet's headquarters. The Sangheili had a significant advantage over the SPARTANs, being their active camouflage, so John signaled for them to take point.

The six Sangheili nodded, activating their active camo modules and creeping towards the entrance to the temple. There was a dozen guards all around the entrance, most of them Loyalist Sangheili. There were a few Jiralhane and Kig-Yar among them, however. John watched the green outline of the Sangheili Rangers approach the guards, waiting for the proper moment to open fire.

All at once, the six Sangheili warriors deactivated their active camo, running six of the loyalist Sangheili through with their energy swords. A mere moment later, John fired off a series of suppressed bursts from his battle rifle, dropping a pair of the hulking Jiralhanae. Linda's suppressed SRS-99C barked out two shots in quick succession, felling a pair of Jiralhanae honor guards. Fred's suppressed MA5B rattled off half of its magazine, downing the wrist-mounted shields worn by the Kig-Yar among the guards. Finally, Kelly's suppressed M7 SMG spent most of its magazine finishing off the Kig-Yar.

Knowing that time was of the essence, Blue Team broke from cover and sprinted towards the Sangheili Rangers. After regrouping, the platoon entered the temple. Right on cue, the company of ODSTs that had been dropped started raising hell on the other side of the temple, drawing the defenders' attention away from the SPARTANs and their Sangheili allies. Some dust was shaken from the vaulted ceiling of the temple as a pair of SPNKr rockets struck home against the defenders.

The SPARTANs and the Rangers were methodical, clearing the temple hallway by hallway, room by room. By the time the few remaining honor guards realized the attack outside was merely a diversion, it was too late.

John and Fred both tossed frag grenades around the corner, hearing a few of the honor guards within scrambling for cover in the two seconds they had before the explosives liquefied them. The Rangers moved in first, one of them finding an energy pike embedded in his shoulder. The Ranger let out an angered roar, igniting his energy sword and cleaving the weapon in half.

As the SPARTANs funneled into the central chamber, they found that their grenades had indeed been effective. Two of the honor guards were sprawled out on the ground in a pool of violet blood. John's reflexes kicked in as one of the honor guards attempted to drive the energy pike through his neck. He quickly ducked under the swing, bringing his rifle about and flipping it over to automatic fire. He jammed the barrel into the honor guard's mandible, hammering down on the trigger until the creature's shields failed and rounds punched through its head.

Kelly was effortlessly dancing between three honor guards, planting 8-gauge slugs into each of them. Linda, who had stuck closer to the entrance, made herself known by cranking off four quick rounds from her SRS-99C, each of them bearing down on the withered form of the Prophet of Mercy. The Prophet's anti-gravity throne's built-in shield generator held up against the first three rounds, but the final one proved too much. The 14.5mm round speared through the Prophet's abdomen, sending the throne toppling over and Mercy to the floor.

That threw the remaining honor guards into a frenzy. Six of them mindlessly charged the Rangers and SPARTANs with no regard for their own safety. Five of the Rangers and Blue Team effortlessly dispatched them. As John keyed into the shared UNSC-Sangheili Battle-net, the Ranger Ultra marched over to Mercy, seeing that the round hadn't quite killed him yet. The Prophet looked up at the towering Sangheili, beady eyes begging for his namesake. The Ranger showed him none, igniting his energy sword and driving it through Mercy's chest.

A few minutes later, an imposing voice came over the Battle-net, both UNSC and Covenant. "Attention Covenant forces: this is Fleetmaster Thel'Vadum. The Prophet of Mercy is no more! Lay down your arms!"

From the nearby city, where the battle still raged on, John could distinctly hear the earth-shaking war cries of their allies. The five remaining Rangers all returned in kind, letting out a roar that seemed to shake the very foundation of the ancient temple itself.

 **April 14, 2537; 0312 Hours**

 **Urs System, Sanghelios Orbit; (UNSC _Trafalgar Bridge)_**

Admiral Harper watched as the _Trafalgar_ 's forward MACs opened up on the retreating Covenant fleet. Thanks to the assistance of the rather sizable Sangheili and Unggoy fleet that was operating over Sanghelios, very few vessels managed to escape. The only ones that managed to avoid the Sangheili and UNSC's wrath were the larger, and better-shielded vessels like the CAS-class Assault Carrier.

A cheer broke out across the bridge as the last of the Covenant vessels evacuated the system. A few of the Sangheili fleets that had arrived from nearby colonies began reorganizing to pursue the Covenant. Harper couldn't help but smile. The UNSC had taken relatively minor casualties, given the scale of the battle. Most of the unrecoverable vessels were destroyers, frigates, and a few light cruisers, all of which had managed to launch their lifeboats with survivors aboard. Most of Battlegroup Victor was still operational, suffering mostly structural or minor internal damage. The _Trafalgar_ , being the centerpiece of the battlegroup, had suffered some considerable damage, but nothing debilitating. The forward sensors were down, and a few of the lower decks had their atmosphere vented. In the grand scheme of things, Harper was happy to consider the first true operation of the war a success.

His attention was drawn by an incoming communication from the flagship of the Sanghelios fleet, _The Shadow of Intent_. Knowing full-well who was contacting him, Harper accepted the communication from his console. "Admiral…" Thel'Vadam began, his mandibles flared in the Sangheili equivalent to a welcoming smile. To the Admiral, it was a bit unsettling, but he wasn't about to let that get in the way. "Quite artistically done."

"Agreed." Harper nodded. " _Trafalgar_ and _Phoenix_ are ready to deploy ground forces to the planet."

"Excellent." Thel nodded. "The warriors of House Vadam would greatly appreciate the assistance. If your fleets can spare further assistance, it would be greatly appreciated. We are preparing to assault the Covenant Holy City of High Charity and to relieve Rtas'Vadum, who has been engaged with loyalist fleets around the city for some time."

"I'll forward the request to Reach." Harper nodded.

"Excellent." Thel smiled again. "We have momentum for the first time in over a year. We cannot afford to waste it. We were fortunate enough to cut one head from the serpent today… now only two remain: Truth and Regret. _Both_ are present on High Charity. With their defeat, the Covenant will crumble to dust."

"What about the other species?" Harper asked. "I know the Unggoy are holding their own."

"The Jiralhanae are dependent on the Covenant for their technology, having no shipyards of their own." Thel explained. "Luckily, all Covenant races are experiencing civil war with the exception of the Yanme'e. We are working to contain their fleets, with moderate success. If the Hierarchs fall, so will the morale of the loyalists."

"Alright… I'll forward this to Admiral Cole." Harper nodded. "As it stands, you have our battlegroup's support for the conflict."

 **April 15, 2537; 1231 Hours**

 **Sol System, Earth (Sydney)**

President Yevgeny nodded as the images of the three Councilors appeared on his computer terminal. "Councilors… Ambassador Wu tells me that there's something you wish to discuss?" Yevgeny quickly keyed Admiral Parangosky into the communication, allowing her to listen in.

"Indeed, Mister President." Tevos nodded. "Since it's been six years since first contact, we'd like to bring a cooperative effort between the UEG and Turian Hierarchy forward for consideration."

"Interesting…" Yevgeny nodded. "Please, continue."

"With your Senate voting to allow increased sharing of technology between us, the Primarch has been considering launching a cooperative effort to design a new warship, mostly as a test-bed for a potential fusion of Slipspace and Element Zero-based FTL. Upon completion, the vessel would be under sole UNSC command, of course." Sparatus' suggestion was admittedly surprising for Yevgeny. He hadn't expected _this_ when the Ambassador to the Citadel notified him that the Council was requesting a meeting.

Yevgeny feigned consideration for a moment, actually waiting for Parangosky's input. When her response flashed across his terminal, he was slightly taken aback. She was willing to accept it. "Very well…" Yevgeny nodded, keeping a straight face. "I'll bring this request to Admiral Cole, he can work out further details with the Turian Admiralty."

"That's… admittedly surprising, Mister President." Tevos commented. "You don't have any conditions?"

After another few moments, Yevgeny found himself surprised again by Parangosky's input. She had no conditions. "None at all. You'll be happy to know that, after careful deliberation, the Senate Internal Security Committee has cleared the sharing of star charts and the full opening of UEG borders to Council civilian space traffic. Well, to the worlds within your FTL range, at least. Any other civilian traffic would need transport on a UEG vessel."

All of the Councilors shared a look of surprise. "This is great news!" Tevos smiled.

"With the UNSC finally reorganized and at pre-insurrection readiness, we're finally secur enough to open up to the rest of the galaxy." Yevgeny smiled. "Now if you have time, I can transfer you to Admiral Cole's office on Reach to discuss the details of this cooperative effort."

"That would be greatly appreciated, Mister President." Sparatus nodded.

"Of course…" Yevgeny nodded. "Jameson, if you'd be so kind?"

"Right away, sir." Yevgeny's A.I. nodded, his avatar appearing on his desk.

As the Council's communication was transferred through the Waypoint network to FLEETCOM Alpha, he swiped across the display and brought up his conversation with Parangosky. "I'm surprised, Margaret."

Parangosky smirked. "With the arrival of the Covenant wrecks over Onyx, not even Slipspace drives could let them keep up. Even then, should the war with the Covenant take a drastic turn in the Covenant's favor, it would be beneficial to have… competent allies in the Council. Appropriate measures need to be taken to ensure these 'Prophets' don't find allies in the various Council races."

Parangosky glanced off-screen, seeing her short window of time-lag between the connection transferring from Earth to Reach was up. "Now, we can continue this conversation in a moment… I need to advise Cole on how we should proceed." With that, she cut the communication.

 **A/N:**

 **Alright, this one was a _bit_ late. I had actually intended to get this up before the New Year (It's a bit short, because a lot of shit came up during Christmas, and I was _quite_ gone on New Year's. God bless whiskey).**

 **Hopefully my schedule will be a bit more stable this year. A lot of the past year has been SUPER hectic for me. It was hard to find time two write between work, my IRL D &D games that I DM, and the various stresses of being a (semi) functional adult. Not gonna lie, I feel like shit knowing that I'm responding to reviews that are over a year old, but shit happens amirite.**

 **Review time:**

 **Major Simi- They're not hiding _everything_ … just the important stuff.**

 **Coduss- At this point, humans aren't quite yet aware that they're the Reclaimers. As far as they know, the Council could access Forerunner tech just as easily as they can. They essentially had a situation where they could keep that tech out of the Council's reach for just a bit longer, so they took it.**

 **312- It didn't quite make sense to explain what I meant by 'siding' with the Sangheili and Separatists before now, but with this chapter it makes sense. Basically, the Unggoy were the one race that almost universally sided with the Elites, seeing it as a way to improve their standing. All of the other races, with the exception of the Brutes, are in a state of civil war.**

 **As for Installation 04, it was discovered. Hasn't been destroyed yet. The Prophets can't exactly fire it without a human present.**

 **Xeano- Halo Wars was _way_ better than it had any right to be. It actually had a fantastic narrative that cleared up quite a bit about the minor stuff. As for finding that shield world… you'll see.**

 **Benthatguy- I've learned from writing other stories that it's a VERY grave mistake to give concrete numbers for things like that. I'll say that they're still slower than the Covenant's, but not to the same degree as in canon. For a ratio, they're just under twice as fast as the canon UNSC's.**

 **ExS-DrIfTeRr- That is indeed correct. Will fix.**

 **SalemTheSpeakerOfTruth- I mean… they're two separate entities. The UEG is the civilian government, the UNSC is the Military.**

 **1529- My rationale for this was slightly different than other authors that I've read. In canon, the Covenant often coerces lesser species into the Covenant by one of two methods: outright conquest or the promise of advanced technology. The second method there is the most important. Given that the UNSC didn't share their tech at first, option two becomes a reasonable concern now that the UNSC knows a bit on how the Covenant operates. That's exactly why the UNSC (ONI) is allowing for technological cooperation now. They decided to keep their advanced technology close to the chest when they had no knowledge of the Covenant's existence. Now that there's a more existential threat, their priorities shifted.**

 **Donout- Oh, absolutely they possess a massive fleet. But there's no strategic reason a fleet would all be concentrated in one place, especially when your enemy can hit you from just about anywhere.**

 **Guest (Nov 23)- I mean… the FCW took place before the Human-Covenant War. They were wearing baseline Mk. IV armor, which had no shields. The armor was just REALLY good.**

 **Guest #2 (Nov 23)- I mean… Shepard is kinda the focal character of the Mass Effect series (the good games, at least). It'd be kinda similar to what happens if you write a Halo-related crossover without the Chief. Even if it takes place hundreds of years after the games, people will ask why the Chief isn't present.**

 **Guest (Nov 25)- It wasn't the ship they retrieved, it was ONI's survey probe.**

 **Guest #2 (Nov 25)- Whoa, don't cut yourself on that edge there chief.**

 **Andy021- I sincerely doubt that the Council is going to be able to find the exact location of a planet based on the name that another species gave to it, especially a species that they literally just met. That'd be like Columbus saying "I'm from Europe" to the Native Americans. They'd know it's a place, but they wouldn't know where the hell it is in relation to them.**

 **ChaosSPARTAN575- I've heard it referred to as both, oftentimes with Slipspace being shorthand for "Slipstream Space". Never was quite sure which was more common.**

 **UltraMickey- Not yet, my dude.**

 **TheBronzeLine- Noble Six will be a thing, and will still be a SPARTAN. Their story will change, of course.**

 **Albert Scoot- You are aware of what 'Sovereignty' means, right? You know, the thing that the UEG maintained? It involves a nation retaining complete control over its internal dealings. They're a member to the Council in the exact same way that nations are 'observers' to NATO. They attend meetings, have embassies, but have no power and NATO has no power over them.**

 **\- Currently, this is taking place several years before Cortana's even been created. If memory serves, she was created around 2550 or 2551.**

 **DownloadWasTaken- Are we talking about the same ONI here? In canon, ONI literally kept the existence of a planet secret from all of Humanity (Onyx). As for an assassination parallel: They quite literally knocked off a journalist on a live Waypoint broadcast. Following your logic, if you were to search for information that has been deemed classified on your PC, the Government couldn't do anything about it because it was your PC.**

 **Apache27- I mean… if it's done right, you could theoretically pull off two humanities. Like, have he Forerunner's reseeding efforts go wrong and accidentally reseed Humanity on two planets or something.**

 **I hate you now- Like I said, real life shit, my dude.**


	10. Chapter 9: Operation AEGIS

**Chapter 9: Operation AEGIS**

 **October 17, 2537; 1231 Hours**

 ** _UNSC All Under Heaven,_** **Soell System (Slipspace)**

The Master Chief sat atop a crate of small arms, checking and re-checking his BR55. ONI had called every single surviving SPARTAN-II aboard what was quite possibly the most secretive ship in the entire UNSC Navy: the _All Under Heaven_. All he knew was that this ship was capable of stealth deployments of SPARTANs. Why their… younger cousins were excluded from the call was beyond him, but it was nice to have the more-familiar generation together for the first time since Reach.

" _Ground teams, prepare for insertion. Five mikes._ " The Captain's voice came over the ship-wide intercom. John looked up from his rifle, seeing the motley crew of SPARTAN-IIs moving towards their assigned pods. He stood upright, heading towards the small collection of pods that had been set aside for Blue Team. He locked his weapon into the retention arms in the pod just next to Fred's, and sat down.

The pod slowly closed and pressurized, followed by the mechanisms of the ship moving the pods into their deployment position. All twenty nine of the SPARTAN-IIs aboard the vessel, which excluded Kurt and Red Team due to their assignment on Reach, were prepared for deployment, and simply awaited the green light.

When that light finally came, the forty pods were deployed into the Slipstream for the briefest of moments, followed closely by the shunt back into real-space. From his pod's orientation, John could just barely see the curvature of an artificial ring-world from the corner of his pod's viewport. From what little of the ecosystem he could see, it seemed to be quite diverse. _That_ was the Halo installation the Sangheili had mentioned.

What truly caught the attention of every SPARTAN was the massive space station just "above" the ring. It seemed to be carved from a large planetoid, with well over three hundred Covenant warships engaged in a knock-down, drag-out brawl. From what little information the Sangheili were able to provide, the Covenant Separatists were just barely losing the battle for this station, with individual streets within the station itself changing hands almost weekly. The space battle was brutal, with the wreckage piling around High Charity, which had been rendered immobile by Separatist sabotage.

Behind the insertion pods came a fleet of Sangheili-crewed warships, numbering in at just over four-dozen vessels of varying weights. The centerpiece of the fleet was the CAS-class carrier _Shadow of Intent_ , a monolithic force compared to most any UNSC vessel.

John could swear that, just for a moment, the battle around High Charity slowed. The momentary respite was just that: momentary, as the Sangheili fleet unleashed a flood of dropships and a blinding barrage of weapons fire.

The SPARTANs continued on their vector towards High Charity, just ahead of the massive swarm of Separatist Spirit and Phantom dropships. Their mission was simple: eliminate the Prophets Truth and Regret.

 **October 17, 2537, 1241 Hours**

 **Knossos System, _UNSC Shade_**

Shepard ducked past a pair of ONI officers that were making their way from the Prowler's bridge, heavy MJOLNIR boots clanking against the plated floor of the stealth vessel. Her team's old home-vessel had been rushed out of refit due to some classified operation that the _All Under Heaven_ was needed for. She did miss the slightly larger barracks, but there was something comforting about the _Shade_.

As she stepped onto the bridge, Agent Lawson was already deep in conversation with Admiral Cole regarding the distress signal they had picked up from the nearby Council archeological dig site on Therum. Apparently, a sizable Batarian pirate vessel was interested in whatever the Council team had dug up, and had arrived to take it by force. Judging by the resident ONI agent's posture, she wasn't liking whatever the Admiral had to say. "-for immediate deployment, Agent Lawson." Was all Shepard managed to catch at first, but the pieces started falling into place. "Whatever they found is of high value, and we _cannot_ allow the Batarians access to it."

Lawson sighed. "Understood, sir. I'll prepare a team for deployment."

"Good… keep me posted." Cole nodded, his image blinking out a moment later.

"You asked for me, ma'am?" Shepard asked, catching Lawson's attention.

"Yes…" Miranda sighed, rubbing the bridge of her nose. "Have your team report to the hangar bay for immediate departure. We're intercepting those Batarians."

Shepard's face remained emotionless, her head giving a simple nod. "Understood, ma'am."

 **October 17, 2537, 1311 Hours**

 **Knossos System, Therum**

Shepard racked back the charging handle on her SRS-99C, locking a massive round into the chamber as the ammo counter flared to life on her HUD, reading out "4" on its display. The Pelican rattled rather softly against the somewhat thin atmosphere of Therum. She watched as her HUD blinked with an update from the _Shade_ , signaling the ground team of her own SPARTAN-III team and six ODSTs that the small Batarian vessel had been crippled on the ground. Not long after that update, four ANVIL-II missiles shrieked from the missile pods attached to the dropship, striking a distant target.

As the Pelican quickly dropped towards the craggy surface of Therum, the transport bay doors hissed open, flooding the crew compartment with the searing Therum air. Shepard's HUD read the ambient temperature as almost-instantly spiking to 55 centigrade, and climbing. She stood up alongside her team of SPARTANs and ODSTs, and waited for the green light which came a mere moment after the Pelican came to a halt over a somewhat smooth stretch of ground and deployed its carried M12 Warthog APC.

The moment the last ODST dropped from the Pelican, it quickly gained altitude and began rattling off 40mm chaingun rounds at a distant collection of Batarian pirates. Shepard could see that the Sahara-class Prowler's relatively new pulse laser cannon worked to rather… great effect. The primary engines of the small Batarian vessel had been completely seared through by the weapon, completely unimpeded by its kinetic barriers.

Shepard sent a wordless nod to Ashley, who hopped into the driver's seat of the transport 'Hog as the rest of the team piled into the armored compartment on the back. Shepard climbed into the exposed passenger's seat, bracing herself against the frame of the vehicle and resting her rifle on the windshield's metal frame.

As they approached, the heavy 14.5mm rifle rounds sent a distinct _crack_ through the air as Shepard found the few targets that the Pelican's pass missed. The missiles had torn massive chunks from the Batarian vessel, exposing much of the corvette's internal structure. The vessel itself had set down just in front of a small camp that the Council's archeological team had set up. There was a distinct lack of non-Batarian corpses, signaling that the Council's team must have retreated into the tunnels they had dug.

As Ashley brought the APC to a halt just a few dozen meters from the abandoned camp and a few of the ODSTs began piling out, a squad of Batarians rushed out of the tunnels, stunned by the sight of a UNSC platoon.

Three of the ODSTs took cover behind the armored Warthog, returning fire on the four Batarians who had begun peppering the vehicle with rounds. Both Ashley's MA5 and Shepard's SRS-99 returned fire on the Batarians, killing two outright and sending the other two scrambling back into the tunnels with drained barriers.

Shepard glanced down at her motion tracker, seeing that the rest of her team was now out of the vehicle. "Massani, Vega, take the ODSTs and secure the wreckage." She ordered. "Williams, on me."

Ashley nodded wordlessly, and followed Shepard towards the mouth of the cave. Shepard took a moment to exchange her rifle for the M90 shotgun that was attached to her armor's magnetic clamps. As they entered the cave, both Shepard and Ashley activated their VISR systems, bathing the entire darkened cavern in a green hue.

The two SPARTANs advanced through the winding tunnel ruthlessly and methodically, both 7.62 rounds and 8 gauge buckshot tearing through the few Batarian pirates that remained. As they finally made their way into the main dig site, which was a massive subterranean Prothean structure that was still half-buried, Shepard and Ashley ran into nearly two-dozen Batarians who almost immediately engaged them from cover. Enhanced reaction times alone allowed Shepard and Ashley to fire off a quick series of rounds at a selected target before pulling back into cover.

The gold-tinted visors of the two SPARTANs shared a silent nod as Shepard produced a fragmentation grenade and Ashley produced a flashbang grenade. Ashley removed the pin and allowed the spoon to clatter to the floor, waiting two seconds before tossing it into the darkened cavern. There was a startled cry from the Batarians within as the ones unlucky enough to be watching the tunnel were blinded by the sudden flash of light and deafening _bang_. Shepard then tossed her frag grenade around the corner, hearing it bounce twice before sending shrapnel all throughout the dig site.

The two SPARTANs stormed into the dig site, finding only sixteen Batarians still standing, and still reeling from the blinding and deafening flashbang grenade. They closed the twenty meter distance in mere seconds, both emptying their weapons as they took down the remaining Batarian resistance. Shepard spent the entirety of her shotgun's twelve-round tube in slam fire, downing nine Batarians with point-blank 8 gauge buckshot. The remainder were either killed or incapacitated by Williams, who had managed to get two to surrender, killing the other three with the entirety of her 32 round magazine.

As the fighting wound to a close, the eerie silence was broken by a single voice calling out. "Hello? Can you hear me?!" Shepard's HUD recognized it as the Asari language, translating everything for her. She zeroed in on the source of the voice, finding what seemed to be a dull blue glow at the base of the Prothean tower, with an Asari suspended about a foot in the air by the energy field.

As Shepard approached the barrier, sliding fresh shells into her shotgun, the Asari's face seemed to go from elated, to confused, to downright awestruck as the hulking half-ton mass of powered armor walked towards the barrier curtain carrying a distinctly Human weapon. "Wait… you're a Human!"

"Doctor T'Soni?" Shepard asked, recognizing the voice from the distress signal sent out by the archeological team.

"Thank the Goddess…" Liara sighed in relief. "I wasn't expecting anyone to respond to our distress call so quickly. Listen, this thing is a Prothean security device. I can't move, so I need you to shut it down to get me out of it, alright?"

Shepard nodded, quietly disabling her helmet's vocal systems and connecting to the _Shade_. " _Shade,_ this is Shepard. We've found a single survivor from the dig site, it's T'Soni. She's been trapped in a Prothean ruin, how should we proceed?"

"Free her as quickly as possible and await further orders, Lieutenant." Agent Lawson responded. "I'll notify the Admiral that she's been recovered."

"Aye, Ma'am." Shepard nodded, closing down the comms and reactivating her vocal system. "How did you activate it?" She asked, looking at Liara through the hazy blue energy field.

"The Batarians arrived when I was exploring these ruins, and I activated these systems to keep them out." Liara explained. "When I did, I must have hit something I wasn't supposed to. There's a terminal in here that can deactivate the barrier, but you'll have to find some way past these defenses."

Shepard took a step back, sizing up the tower. It seemed to be rather sturdy for a fifty thousand year old ruin, but there was definitely some damage done over time to the metal structure. There was some stress on the right hand side, likely due to millennia without any upkeep. "Williams, you bring that Compound-12?"

"Yeah…" Ashley nodded, keeping her eyes trained on the two surrendered Batarians as she reached behind her back, producing a small bundle of C-12 plastic explosives and tossing it across the cavern to Shepard, who caught it in her free hand.

She looked over to Liara, who was watching the interaction with interest. "Give me five minutes. With that, Shepard headed towards the particularly stressed section of outer wall, and began lining the edges with the putty-like C-12 explosive compound, tying the detonator to her armor's systems. After taking a moment to ensure everything was in place, she stepped back and triggered the detonator, startling both Liara and the two captured Batarians with the earth-shaking blast.

Shepard waited for the dust to settle, then climbed through the jagged hole that the C-12 had blasted into the side of the Prothean tower, keeping a finger just above her shotgun's trigger guard just in case. After ascending a winding ramp, she found herself looking at Liara's back, with a strange-looking computer terminal about halfway between the two of them. "Walk me through this, Doctor." Shepard declared, startling Liara again.

"O-oh… if you put your hand near it, it will activate." She began, prompting Shepard to do as directed by the subject matter expert. Sure enough, the sickly-green hologram flared out from the terminal, bringing up a series of unfamiliar characters and symbols that her HUD couldn't translate. "From there, there should be a series of red symbols, activate the first from the left, second from the right, then the center one."

After tapping the three symbols in succession, Shepard heard a soft _thump_ from where Liara was suspended. As she turned around, she saw the young Asari just beginning to stand up and straighten herself out. "Thank you…" Liara began, turning around to face the SPARTAN. "Did you… find any of my team on your way in?"

"Afraid not, Doctor." Shepard explained, slinging her shotgun back onto its magnetic holster. "The rest of my team is looking through the Batarian ship now, there might be survivors there."

Liara seemed dejected at first, but a bit of hope returned when she heard the SPARTAN mention potential survivors in the vessel. "I won't even bother asking why there's Humans on Therum, but… thank you again."

"Just doing our job, Doctor." Shepard nodded, gesturing for Liara to follow her outside the Prothean tower. As they exited the tower, Shepard looked over to Ashley. "Any word on these freaks?"

"Just grunts." Ashley shrugged, keeping her MA5 pointed at the two captured Batarians. "Already removed their Omni-Tools for analysis."

Liara watched as the two hulking masses of armor conversed with one another for a few moments, Shepard eventually speaking into her comms unit. " _Shade_ , this is Shepard. Site secure, and data has been recovered from the captured Batarians for analysis. How should we proceed?"

Liara couldn't tell what their commanding officer had responded with, but she had a vague idea when the very same SPARTAN who had rescued her from the barrier field drew a sidearm and fired two rounds into each of the Batarians. She let out a soft gasp of surprise seeing the execution, earning a sideways glance from a gold-tinted MJOLNIR visor. "C'mon…" Shepard began, reattaching the magnum to her thigh's magnetic holster. "Extraction's waiting topside."

 **October 17, 2537, 1419 Hours**

 **Knossos System, UNSC _Shade_ (Therum Orbit)**

Liara glanced around the passenger bay of the Pelican dropship, the silence practically drowning her. It had taken a moment for her, but she eventually realized that these soldiers were _far_ from UNSC regulars. She recognized the black-armored ones rather easily, the ODSTs had become somewhat famous in the wider galaxy… mostly for being absolute lunatics in the eyes of most other species. It took a bit longer for the four soldiers in what appeared to be power armor, but she vaguely recalled them from Humanity's first peaceful meeting with the Council on the Citadel… they were the SPARTANs.

She was somewhat surprised by Shepard's display of… kindness? She had remained standing, allowing Liara to sit in the seat that would otherwise be taken by the half-ton woman. Eventually, the silence was broken by the gentle jolt of the dropship landing, followed closely by the rear bay opening. The bay was flooded with the cool, sterile air of whatever ship it was attached to.

Liara followed the lead of the SPARTANs and ODSTs, standing up and following them into the relatively small hangar bay of the vessel. Much to her surprise, it seemed rather barren, only housing a few crates. It seemed that this was the only dropship assigned to the vessel… whatever it was. Waiting at the base of the ramp was a rather tall, dark-haired Human woman who wore a uniform that Liara didn't recognize. It was a simple black jumpsuit with nothing more than rank pins on the collar, and a nameplate on the chest. As Liara walked closer, she saw that the nameplate read "Cpt. Lawson".

"Lima-One, return to your posts." Lawson ordered to the ODSTs, prompting the five shock troopers to give a quick nod, then head for a bulkhead behind the woman. As they moved out of earshot, Lawson's piercing blue eyes turned to Liara with a gaze that was so intense it practically made her shrink. "Miss T'Soni… welcome aboard. You're quite lucky we happened to be close by."

"I certainly am…" Liara attempted a smile, but it felt… strange. "Thank you, Captain."

"Of course." Lawson nodded. "As we're quite far from any major settlements, the Council has requested that we bring you back to the Citadel alongside any information regarding what caused the Batarian intrusion on Therum. We will be making a small detour to Aephus so you can be transported via a civilian vessel as opposed to a military one. All I ask of you for your two-day residence on my vessel is a certain level of… cooperation in the name of UNSC operational security."

"O-of course, Captain." Liara nodded, growing somewhat concerned by the Captain's choice of words. "I can answer any questions you might-"

"Oh, it's nothing like that." Miranda gave a smile in return, but all it did was unnerve Liara further. "This vessel is simply somewhat… sensitive, for lack of a better term. Lieutenant Shepard can explain your restrictions while aboard the _Shade_."

 **October 20, 2537; 0230 Hours**

 **Aephus, Saint Dumont Orbital Station**

Liara, despite being on an orbital installation that housed just about every species in the known galaxy in its halls, still felt woefully out of place. She had just stepped off of a UNSC Pelican, onto a civilian spaceport, while being escorted by what felt like the most ostentatious company possible. Both Captain Lawson and Lieutenant Shepard walked alongside her. Lawson wore her familiar naval uniform, still surprisingly bare compared to the other officers Liara could see walking the deck of the space station. Shepard was clad in her MJOLNIR Mk. IV armor, drawing the occasional look from around the station as she walked. Still, now that she was off the _Shade_ , she felt like she could actually breathe again. Something about that vessel and its crew seemed… strange. What seemed especially strange was the fact that the _Shade_ itself didn't dock with the station… rather, they took a Pelican.

It had barely been twelve hours since Lawson had explained to her what they had discovered on the Batarian corvette. Apparently, _someone_ had contracted those Batarian pirates to capture her, but not even the seemingly hyperadvanced UNSC decryption systems could determine the source. For that reason, Lawson's superiors had decided to send a small security detail to accompany Liara back to the Citadel. Based on what she saw on Therum, there was no better protection in the galaxy than a SPARTAN.

After following behind Lawson and Shepard for what seemed like an hour, they eventually found themselves approaching an evidently high-ranked UNSC naval officer. Liara couldn't tell what exactly the rank pins on the man's uniform signified, but there were three stars pinned to the man's collar. "Vice-Admiral Hood." Lawson and Shepard both snapped into a salute as Lawson acknowledged the Admiral and his small contingent of four Marine guards.

"Captain, Lieutenant." Hood nodded, returning the salute. Liara watched as the middle-aged Admiral turned to look at her, his imposing stature and ornate uniform making her feel… small. "And Miss T'Soni…" He held out his hand to shake, which Liara did after a moment of remembering the importance of such a small gesture to Humans. "Vice-Admiral Terrence Hood, UNSC Fourth Fleet. Apologies for the sudden change of plans, but our analysis of the Batarian data has unearthed some… concerning implications."

At Liara's questioning brow-raise, Hood continued. "The individual who put the bounty out for you is _not_ a Batarian as we had originally thought. The data was received from communications channels only available to Council Spectres, meaning that sending you to the Citadel on a Council transport would be far too dangerous."

"Wait…" Liara began, the Admiral's words stunning her. "A _Spectre_ wants me captured? Why?!"

"We're still piecing that together." Hood explained. "The Council has already been informed of the discovery, and HIGHCOM has decided to send me as a liaison. Given that these Batarians were also contracted to… _attempt_ to capture a SPARTAN, the Council has allowed the UEG to assist in an investigation. I can explain more on the ship." Hood nodded to the airlock, where Liara could just barely see the engine systems of a Paris-Class Frigate through the nearby window.

 **October 21, 2537; 2051 Hours**

 **Widow Nebula, Citadel (UEG Embassy)**

Miranda flipped through the various files on her datapad, occasionally glancing up to see Liara and Shepard attempting a conversation. Try as she might, she couldn't shake the feeling that something was… off with Shepard. She _always_ seemed tense, even more-so than your average SPARTAN. Were it not for the fact that she had seen her act _exactly_ this way otherwise, she would have assumed it to be because she was forced to leave her armor onboard the _Burlington_.

Flipping through a few more files on her datapad, she eventually realized that she had never looked into the dossiers for Fireteam Able. Keeping up with both the Batarian operation and the seemingly never-ending reports from the Covenant Civil War had stretched her spare time rather thin. Her curiosity getting the better of her, she started reading through those long-overdue files.

Zaeed was nothing spectacular, just an effective Marine who happened to catch ONI's eye during the initial invasion of Aephus. He had nearly been court-martialed for insubordination once, but it was ruled inconclusive and tossed out. He was listed as being brash, rough, brutal, and combative… seemed about right. Were it not for the reactivation of the SPARTAN program, he probably would have been selected for ONI's internal security division.

Vega was a bit of a mixed bag. Deemed a narcissist by the ONI handlers assigned to the SPARTAN program. Miranda was thankful for her composed nature, as she just about started laughing when she saw the laundry list of illicit steroid screenings that Vega was obligated to undergo during his career with the ODSTs. He was ruled to be an excellent shock trooper, if a bit combative and occasionally insubordinate. She took special note of a list of injuries sustained during his training as a SPARTAN: fractured orbital bone, fractured tibia, dislocated shoulder, and dislocated wrist; all inflicted by one then-cadet Mia Shepard.

Williams was a picture-perfect Marine, coming from a long line of UNSC servicemen and women. She had a practically spotless record, only a single NJP that amounted to little more than a verbal reprimand. She had caught the attention of ONI due to her assuming command over a diversionary attack against Batarian pirates after her commanding officer had been killed. She was well-liked by both her comrades and superiors.

Miranda was surprised when she pulled up Shepard's dossier. She had perhaps the strangest military career she had _ever_ seen. Even as a Marine, she was a crack shot marksman and an excellent hand-to-hand combatant. She had served directly under Sergeant Avery Johnson, the very same man who had been an Orion Project operative, on Torfan. What really confused her was her personality description listing her as 'generally friendly, outgoing, and respectful'. Based on the few months Miranda had spent alongside the Lieutenant, only that last one was true. As she read over the addendum to the dossier, she was surprised to find a section on her actions on Torfan to be redacted at the request of SPARTAN III Operational Director Sierra-051. Even her considerably high security clearance wasn't enough to know what was hidden behind those blacked-out lines. When she read that Shepard was captured by Batarian slavers for a short time, she at least had _some_ measure of an answer as to what had caused such a seemingly-drastic personality shift… and why the Lieutenant seemed to take absolutely no issue with the operations in Batarian space.

She glanced up for a moment, seeing the SPARTAN in question glancing up to her at the same time. She looked tense, even while she talked with Liara about seemingly nothing of import. Shepard looked back to Liara after a moment, allowing Miranda to look back down to her datapad as a ping popped up on the screen. Hood was requesting her presence in the next room.

With a sigh, Miranda tucked the device back onto her belt and stood upright, heading for the door. As it slid open, she found Admiral Hood and Ambassador Porter standing before a trio of holographic projectors, each bearing the likeness of a Councilor. "Councilors, Captain Miranda Lawson: Naval Intelligence."

"A pleasure, Captain." Tevos nodded. "Admiral Hood tells us you might have some pertinent information on what exactly you discovered on Therum?"

Miranda managed to mask the facial expression, but she was suddenly _very_ concerned. Hood picked up on it quickly enough. "Already cleared with CICONI, Captain." He nodded.

Miranda sighed. "Very well…" She produced her datapad again, flipping over to the relevant information. "The contract on Doctor T'Soni was transmitted to these Hegemony-backed mercenaries through encrypted channels generally reserved for Council Spectres. Even with our advanced decryption capabilities, the identity of the sender is unknown. All we know is that it was indeed dispatched from the Citadel, likely by a Spectre."

The Councilors all shared a worried look as Miranda swiped a hand across her datapad, sending a properly-redacted copy of the information to the Council's terminals. "This decrypted message is eerily similar to the one intercepted by ONI after the attack on Harvest, suggesting that it was carried out by the same, or similar, parties."

"Which is why, with your permission of course, the UEG is requesting to investigate these seemingly-connected incidents." Hood added, folding his hands behind his back.

"These messages do seem oddly similar…" Tevos nodded, staring down at her terminal. Indeed, both were transmitted along channels generally reserved for priority messages and Spectre communications, ones that a pirate or slaver band wouldn't have access to.

"For self-explanatory reasons, these accusations cannot be made public." Mesu spoke up, his eyes darting up from his console.

The Councilors all shared a look, with Sparatus in particular seeming hesitant at Hood's suggestion. Eventually, he let out a sigh and nodded. "For the sake of continuing the building of cordial relations between the Council and the UEG, we are willing to allow the UEG to investigate these attacks alongside a member of Special Tactics and Recon."

"Excellent." Hood nodded. "Agent Lawson, I want you overseeing the investigation."

 **October 20, 2537; 1931 Hours**

 **High Charity (Soell System)**

Chief jammed down on the trigger of his M45 shotgun, blasting a neat hole through the torso of a Brute and splattering its innards all along the boulevard they were pushing along. The street-to-street fighting for High Charity had been brutal, but the Separatist and UNSC forces were steadily pushing towards the center of the massive planetoid. Marine forces were lagging a bit behind the SPARTAN IIs, but that was to be expected. The Sangheili were keeping pace with the Human super soldiers, carving a path through the Loyalist forces for the larger units to move in.

The ground seemed to shudder as a Halcyon-class unleashed a MAC round into a particularly dense sector of the city, blasting a fair portion of it away. Distant balls of burning blue plasma darted around the skyline of the city as Blue Team and a platoon of Sangheili Rangers moved towards the center of High Charity, where an ancient Forerunner Dreadnought provided power for the entire structure. Five SPARTANs had already fallen in the fighting, yet they pushed on. As more Sangheili reinforcements arrived in-system and began bearing down on High Charity, the fighting grew fiercer and fiercer.

 **A/N:**

 **No excuses. I'm lazy as shit. Sue me.**

 **Reviews:**

 **Zeus501- The Loyalist Covenant blockade over Sangheilios wasn't actually that many ships. The UNSC/Separatists had them outnumbered about 3-1, and the Covenant wasn't expecting a Human fleet to roll up on their block like they did. The losses will definitely pile up as the conflict continues (and no, High Charity is not the last battle of the conflict.)**

 **TheBronzeLine- I chose the Human characters that seemed best-fit for the Spartan program. You can rest assured, there will be no other ME characters in the Spartan program. You will be seeing some familiar SPARTAN-IIIs relatively soon, however.**

 **Carlosxvx- The IIIs are, just like in canon, nowhere near as good as the IIs. The primary difference between these ones and the canon ones is that the UEG can afford to budget them for MJOLNIR, rather than the SPI armor they got in canon. The reason they don't have energy shields yet is because the Mk. V armor's energy shields were reverse-engineered from Jackal shield gauntlets. In the absence of anything better, they adopted kinetic barriers.**

 **Lord Demolitions- Whether or not there are multiple Infinity-class vessels remains to be seen. Even with "peacetime" production capabilities, they're absolutely monstrous undertakings to build.**

 **Raw666- The Reapers got a rework, but not in the way you're expecting. All shall be revealed in time.**

 **TheREALMightyKamina- All shall be revealed in time.**

 **Fernix13- The meme that space battles take place within visual range of each other is one that grinds my gears like you wouldn't believe (As much as I may love it, I largely blame Star Wars for this). There's a saying for modern naval/air warfare that holds even more true for space battles: "If you can see the enemy with your own eyes, you've already lost". As for the population growth thing, my main reason for sticking with Halo's canon pop count is that growth rates slow dramatically as technology and living standards improve nearly universally across human societies.**

 **Chloe- You would be correct. It's going to be a bit of an easier endeavor building _Infinity_ now that it's being built in peacetime, along with having access to the Onyx shield world. And yeah, I've been busy as shit and writer's block is a massive bitch. **

**Laughingfox31- I just can't see Chief having a romantic interest of any kind, tbh.**

 **\- Oh, it'll be glorious.**

 **Dantezess- There's a very particular reason that this has the "M" tag on it. I disagree on the "doing it once means you'll do it again" logic, as it's inherently predicated on the idea that something like that is something that can just be thrown around willy nilly.**


End file.
